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THE JEWS 

IN THE 

MAKING ^/AMERICA 

by 

GEORGE COHEN 



1924 

THE STRATFORD CO., Publishers 
Boston, Massachusetts 


Copyright, 1924 

By THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS 



Printed in the United States of America 


JULli *24 

©C1A800139 





■N 


TO 

Miss Nettie Zimmerman 


THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED 








































ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

I wish to gratefully acknowledge the assistance 
of the late Mr. A. S. Freidus of the Jewish Depart¬ 
ment of the New York Public Library and the valu¬ 
able suggestions for revision offered by Mr. Albert 
M. Friedenberg, Secretary of the American Jewish 
Historical Society. I wish also to express my deep 
thanks to Mr. Louis M. Hacker for his kind interest 
in the work and to my sisters Miss Frances and Miss 
Jennie for the typing of the manuscript. 

George Cohen. 


Brooklyn, N. Y., April, 1924* 



CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I The Jews and the Discovery of 



America. 

33 

II 

The Jew and American Ideals . 

46 

III 

The Jews and the Economic Founda¬ 



tions of America .... 

60 

IV 

The Jews and the Revolutionary War 

73 

V 

The Jews and the Civil War 

84 

VI 

The Jews and the World War . 

106 

VII 

The American Economic Life 

120 

VIII 

In the American Theatre 

144 

IX 

In American Literature 

163 

X 

In American Music and Art 

182 

XI 

In Science and the Professions . 

196 

XII 

In Public and Religious Life 

210 

XIII 

The Psychology of the Jew . 

237 


Summary and Conclusion . 

253 

















THE RACIAL CONTRIBUTIONS 
TO THE UNITED STATES 


By Edw. F. McSweeney, LL. D. 

In a general way, the Racial Contribution Series in the 
Knights of Columbus historical program is intended as a 
much needed and important contribution to national 
solidarity. The various studies are treated by able writ¬ 
ers, citizens of the United States, each being in full 
sympathy with the achievements in this country of the 
racial group of whom he treats. The standard of the 
writers is the only one that will justify historical writing; 
— the truth. No censorship has been exercised. 

No subject now actively before the people of the United 
States has been more written on, and less understood, than 
alien immigration. Until 1819, there were no official sta¬ 
tistics of immigration of any sort; the so-called census of 
1790 was simply a report of the several states of their male 
white population under and over 16 years of age, all 
white females, slaves, and others. Statements as to the 
country qf origin of the inhabitants of this country were, 
in the main, guesswork, with the result that, while the 
great bulk of such estimates was honestly and patriotically 
done, some of the most quoted during the present day 
were inspired, obviously to prove a predetermined case, 
rather than to recite the ascertained fact. 


2 Racial Contributions to the United States 


From the beginning the dominant groups in control in 
the United States have regarded each group of newer 
arrivals as more or less the “enemy” to be feared, and, if 
possible, controlled. A study of various cross-sections of 
the country will show dominant alien groups who for¬ 
merly had to fight for their very existence. With increased 
numerical strength and prosperity they frequently at¬ 
tempted to do to the later aliens, frequently even of their 
own group, what had formerly been done to them: — 
decry and stifle their achievements, and deny them oppor¬ 
tunity, — the one thing that may justly be demanded in a 
Democracy, — by putting them in a position of inferiority. 

To attempt, in this country, to set up a “caste” control, 
based on the accident of birth, wealth, or privilege, is a 
travesty of Democracy. When Washington and his com¬ 
patriots, a group comprising the most efficiently prepared 
men in the history of the world, who had set themselves 
definitely to form a democratic civilization, dreamed of 
and even planned by Plato, but held back by slavery and 
paganism, they found their sure foundations in the precepts 
of Christianity, and gave them expression in the Declara¬ 
tion of Independence. The liberty they sought, based on 
obedience to the law of God as well as of man, was actu¬ 
ally established, but from the beginning it has met a 
constant effort to substitute some form of absolutism tend¬ 
ing to break down or replace democratic institutions. 

What may be called, for want of a better term, the 
colonial spirit, which is the essence of hyphenism, has 
persisted in this country to hamper national progress and 
national unity. Wherever this colonial spirit shows itself 
it is a menace to be fought, whether the secret or acknowl¬ 
edged attachment binds to England, Ireland, France, 
Germany, Italy, Greece or any other nation. 


Racial Contributions to the United States 3 

Jefferson pointed out that we have on this soil evolved 
a new race of men who may inexactly be called “Amer¬ 
icans”. This term, as a monopoly of the United States, 
is properly objected to by our neighbors, North and South 
— yet it has a definite meaning for the world. 

During the Great War one aspect of war duty was to 
direct the labor activities growing out of the war, to divert 
labor from “non-essential” to “essential” industry and to 
arbitrate and mediate on wage matters. It was found 
necessary to study and to analyze the greatly feared, but 
infrequently discovered “enemy alien”; and as a prepara¬ 
tion for this duty, with the assistance of several hundred 
local agents, the population of Massachusetts was sepa¬ 
rated into naturally allied groups based on birth, racial 
descent, religious, social and industrial affiliations. The 
astonishing result was that, counting as “native Ameri¬ 
cans” only the actual descendants of all those living in 
Massachusetts in 1840, of whatever racial stock prior to 
that time, only two-sevenths, even with the most liberal 
classification, came within the group of colonial descent, 
while the remaining five-sevenths were found in the vari¬ 
ous racial groups coming later than 1840. More than 
this: While the “Colonial” group had increased in num¬ 
bers for three decades after 1840, in 1918 they were found 
actually to be fewer in number than in 1840, a diminution 
due to excess of deaths over births, proceeding in increas¬ 
ing ratio. 

Membership in the Society of Mayflower descendants is 
eagerly sought as the hallmark of American ancestry. In 
anticipation of the tercentenary of the Mayflower-coming 
in 1620, about a dozen years ago a questionnaire was sent 
to every known eligible for Mayflower ancestry, and the 
replies were submitted to the experts in one of the national 


4 Racial Contributions to the United States 


universities for review and report. When this report was 
presented later, it contained the statement that, consider¬ 
ing the prevailing number of marriages in this group, and 
children per family, — when the six-hundredth celebra¬ 
tion of the Pilgrims’ Landing is held in 2220, three hun¬ 
dred years hence, a ship the size of the original Mayflower 
will be sufficient to carry back to Europe all the then 
living Mayflower descendants. 

The future of America is in the keeping of the 80 per 
cent, of the population, separate in blood and race from 
the colonial descent group. Love of native land is one of 
the strongest and noblest passions of which a man is 
capable. Family life, religion, the soil which holds the 
dust of our fathers, sentiment for ancestral property, and 
many other bonds, make the ties of home so strong and 
enduring, and unite a man’s life so closely with its native 
environment, that grave and powerful reasons must exist 
before a change of residence is contemplated. Escape from 
religious persecution and political tyranny were unques¬ 
tionably the chief reasons which induced the early comers 
to America to brave the dangers of an unknown world. 
Yet that very intolerance against which this was a protest 
soon began to be exercised against all those unwilling to 
accept in their new homes the religious leadership of those 
in control. 

It is not necessary to go into the persecutions due to 
religious bigotry of the colonial period. While the spirit 
of liberty was in the free air of the colonies and would 
finally have secured national independence, it is not pos¬ 
sible to underestimate the support brought to the revolting 
colonials because of the attitude of Great Britain in allow¬ 
ing religious freedom to Canada after it had been taken 
from the French. After the victory of New Orleans, a 


Racial Contributions to the United States 5 

spirit of national consciousness on a democratic basis was 
built up and the narrow spirit of colonialism and of reli¬ 
gious intolerance was to a great degree repudiated by the 
people, when they had become inspired with the American 
spirit, — only to be revived later on. 

The continued manifestation of intolerance has been 
the most persistent effort in our national life. It has 
done incalculable harm. It is apparently deep-rooted, an 
active force in almost every generation. Present in the 
30’s, 40s and 50’s, stopped temporarily for two decades 
by the Civil War, it has recurred subsequently again and 
again; revived since the Armistice, it is unfortunately 
shown to-day in as great a virulence and power of 
destructiveness as at any time during the last hundred 
years. 

After the 70’s, as the aliens became numerically power¬ 
ful and began to demand political representation, move¬ 
ments based on religious prejudice were started from time 
to time, some of which came to temporary prominence, 
later to die an inglorious death; but all these movements 
which attempted to deprive aliens of their right of free¬ 
dom to worship were calculated to bring economic dis¬ 
content and to add to the measure of national disunion 
and unhappiness. 

Sixty years ago 1 the bigoted slogan was "No Irish need 
apply/' During the World War, the principal attack 
was on the German-American citizens of this country, 
whose fathers had come here seeking a new land as a 
protest against tyranny. To-day the current attempt is 

1 In the fifties it was customary for the merchants, etc., to have posted 
at their door a list of help wanted. Many of these help wanted signs 
were accompanied by another which read “No Irish need apply.” Dur¬ 
ing the Civil War there was an Anti-Draft song with a refrain to the 
effect that when it came to drafting they did not practice “No Irish need 
apply.” 


6 Racial Contributions to the United States 

to deprive the Jews 2 * 4 of the right to educational equality. 
In short, while there have been spasmodic manifestations 
of movements based on intolerance in many countries, the 
United States has the unenviable record for continuous 
effort to keep alive a bogey based on an increasing fear of 
something which never existed, and cannot ever exist in 
this country. 

For a hundred years the potent cause which has poured 
millions of human beings into the United States has been 
its marvellous opportunities, and unprecedented economic 
urge. Ever since 1830 a graphic chart of the variations 
in immigration from year to year will reflect the industrial 
situation in the United States for the same period. In 
1837, the total immigration was 79,430.® After the panic 
of that year it decreased in 1838 to 38,914/ In 1842, it 
increased to 104,565/ but a business depression in 1844 
caused it to shrink to 78,615/ Thus the influx of aliens 
increased or decreased according to the industrial condi¬ 
tions prevalent here. The business prosperity of the 
United States was not only the urge to entice immigrants 
hither, but it made their coming possible as they were 
helped by the savings of relatives and friends already here. 

The English were not immigrants, but colonists, 
merely going from one part of national territory to an¬ 
other. With few exceptions, the majority of the early 
colonists came from England. The first English settle¬ 
ment was made in Virginia under the London Company 

2 “Americans only” in a real estate advertisement to-day usually 
means “No Jews need apply.” It sometimes means Irish (i. e., Catholic) 
also. 

8 Wm. J. Bromwell, History of Immigration to United States, p. 96. 

4 Ibid., p. loo. 

6 Ibid., p. 116. 

9 Ibid., p. 124. 


Racial Contributions to the United States 7 

in 1607. It took twelve years of hard struggling to 
establish this colony on a permanent basis. 

The New England region was settled by a different 
class of colonists. Plymouth was the first settlement, in 
1620, followed in 1630 by the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 
which later absorbed the Plymouth settlement. Popula¬ 
tion, after the first ten years, increased rapidly by natural 
growth, and soon colonies in Rhode Island, New Hamp¬ 
shire and Connecticut resulted from the overflow in the 
original settlements. 

While this English settlement was going on North and 
South, the Dutch, under the Dutch West India Company, 
took possession of the region between, and founded New 
Netherlands and New Amsterdam, later New York City. 
Intervening, as it did, between their Northern and South¬ 
ern colonies, New Netherlands, which the English con¬ 
sidered a menace, was seized by the English during a war 
with Holland, and became New York and New Jersey. 

Early in the seventeenth century there was a substan¬ 
tial French immigration to the Dutch colonies. There was 
a constant stream of French immigration to the English 
colonies in New England and in Virginia by many of the 
Huguenots who had originally emigrated to the West 
Indies. 

In 1681, Penn settled Pennsylvania under a royal 
charter and thus the whole Atlantic coast from Canada to 
Florida became subject to England. During the colonial 
period, England contributed to the population of the 
colonies. But, by the middle of the seventeenth century, 
the coming of the English to New England was practi¬ 
cally over. From 1628 to 1641 about 20,000 came from 
England to New England, but for the next century and 
a half more persons went back to Old England than came 


8 Racial Contributions to the United States 


from there to New England. 7 Due to the relaxing of 
religious persecution of dissenting Protestants in England, 
the great formerly impelling force to seek a new home 
across the ocean in America had ceased. 

In 1653 an Irish immigration to New England, much 
larger in numbers than the original Plymouth Colony, was 
proposed. Bristol merchants, who realized the necessity 
of populating the colonies to make them prosperous, 
treated with the government for men, women and girls 
to be sent to the West Indies and to New England. 8 At 
the very fountain head of American life we find, therefore, 
men and women of pure Celtic blood from the South of 
Ireland, infused into the primal stock of America. But 
these apparently were only a drop in this early tide of 
Irish immigration. 9 

7 Commercial Relations of the United States, 1885*1886, Appendix 

III. P- 1967- 

8 “The Commissioners for Ireland gave them orders upqn the gov¬ 

ernors of garrisons, to deliver to them prisoners of war; upon the keep¬ 
ers of gaols, for offenders in custody; upon masters of workhouses, for 
the destitute in their care ‘who were of an age to labor, or if women 
were marriageable and not past breeding’; and gave directions to all in 
authority to seize those who had no visible means of livelihood, and 
deliver them to these agents of the Bristol sugar merchants, in execution 
of which latter direction Ireland must have exhibited scenes in every 
part like the slave hunts in Africa. How many girls of gentle birth 
have been caught and hurried to the private prisons of these man- 
catchers none can tell. Messrs. Sellick and Leader, Mr. Robert 
Yeomans, Mr. Joseph Lawrence, and others, all of Bristol, were active 
agents. As one instance out of many; Captain John Vernon was em¬ 
ployed by the Commissioners for Ireland into England, and contracted in 
their behalf with Mr. David Sellick and Mr. Leader under his hand, 
bearing date the 14th September, 1653, to supply them with two hundred 
and fifty women of the Irish nation above twelve years, and under the 
age of forty-five, also three hundred men above twelve years of age, and 
under fifty, to be found in the country within twenty miles of Cork, 
Youghal, and Kinsale, Waterford and Wexford, to transport them into 
New England.” J. P. Prendergast, The Cromwellian Settlement of 
Ireland, London, 1865. 2d. ed., pp. 89-90. 

9 “It is calculated that in four years (1653-1657) English firms of 
slave-dealers shipped 6,400 Irish men and women, boys and maidens, to 
the British colonies of North America.” A. J. Theband, The Irish Race 
in the Past and Present, N. Y., 1893, p. 385. 


Racial Contributions to the United States 9 


No complete memorial has been transmitted of the 
emigrations that took place from Europe to America, but 
(from the few illustrative facts actually preserved) they 
seem to have been amazingly copious. In the years 1771* 
72, the number of emigrants to America from the North 
of Ireland alone amounted to 17,350. Almost all of these 
emigrated at their own charge; a great majority of them 
were persons employed in the linen manufacture, or 
farmers possessed of some property which they converted 
into money and carried with them. Within the first fort¬ 
night of August, 1773, there arrived at Philadelphia 
3,500 emigrants from Ireland, and from the same docu¬ 
ment which has recorded this circumstance it appears that 
vessels were arriving every month freighted with emi¬ 
grants from Holland, Germany, and especially from Ire¬ 
land and the Highlands of Scotland. 10 

That many Irish settled in Maryland is shown by the 
fact that in 1699 and again a few years later an act was 
passed to prevent too great a number of Irish Papists 
being imported into the province. 11 Shipmasters were 
required to pay two shillings per poll for such. “Shipping 
records of the colonial period show that boatload after 
boatload left the southern and eastern shores of Ireland 
for the New World. Undoubtedly thousands of their 
passengers were Irish of the native stock.” 12 So besides 
the so-called Scotch-Irish from the North of Ireland, the 
distinction always being Protestantism, not race, it is in¬ 
disputable that thousands, Celtic in race and Catholic in 
religion, came to the colonies. These newcomers made 


10 Rev. T. A. Spencer, History of the United States, Vol. I, p. 305. 

11 Henry Pratt Fairchild, Immigration: A zvorld movement, and its 

American significance, N. Y., 1913. P- 47- See also Archives of Mary¬ 
land, Vol. 22, p. 497 - , ..-t-jo 

12 Charles A. and Mary R. Beard, History of the United States, 


N. Y., 1921. P- 


io Racial Contributions to the United States 

their homes principally in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Mary¬ 
land, the Carolinas and the frontiers of the New England 
colonies. Later they pushed on westward and founded 
Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. An interesting essay 
by the well-known writer, Irvin S. Cobb, on The Lost 
Irish Tribes in the South is an important contribution to 
this subject. 

The Germans were the next most important element of 
the early population of America. A number of the arti¬ 
sans and carpenters in the first Jamestown colony were of 
German descent. In 1710, a body of 3,000 Germans 
came to New York — the largest number of immigrants 
supposed to have arrived at one time during the colonial 
period. 1 * Most of the early German immigrants settled 
in New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Pennsylvania. It has 
been estimated that at the end of the colonial period the 
number of Germans was fully two hundred thousand. 

Though the Irish and the Germans contributed most 
largely to colonial immigration, as distinguished from the 
English, who are classed as the Colonials, there were 
other races who came even thus early to our shores. The 
Huguenots came from France to escape religious persecu¬ 
tion. The Jews, then as ever, engaged in their age-old 
struggle for religious and economic toleration, came from 
England, France, Spain and Portugal. The Dutch Gov¬ 
ernment of New Amsterdam, fearing their commercial 
competition, ordered a group of Portuguese Jews to leave 
the colony, but this decision was appealed to the home 
Government at Holland and reversed, so that they were 
allowed to remain. On the whole, their freedom to live 
and to trade in the colonies was so much greater than in 
their former homes that there were soon flourishing 


ia Fairchild, p. 35. 


Racial Contributions to the United States i i 

colonies of Jewish merchants in Newport, Philadelphia 
and Charleston. 

In 1626 a company of Swedish merchants organized, 
under the patronage of the Great King Gustavus Adol¬ 
phus, to promote immigration to America. The King 
contributed four hundred thousand dollars to the capital 
raised, but did not live to see the fruition of his plans. 
In 1637, the first company of Swedes and Finns left 
Stockholm for America. They reached Delaware Bay 
and called the country New Sweden. The Dutch claimed, 
by right of priority, this same territory and in 1655 the 
flag of Holland replaced that of Sweden. The small 
Swedish colony in Delaware came under Penn’s rule and 
became, like Pennsjdvania, cosmopolitan in character. 

The Dutch in New York preserved their racial charac¬ 
teristics for more than a hundred years after the English 
conquest of 1664. At the end of the colonial period, over 
one-half of the 170,000 inhabitants of New York were 
descendants of the original Dutch. 

Many of the immigrants who came here in the early 
days paid their own passage. However, the actual num¬ 
ber of such is only a matter of conjecture. From the 
shipping records of the period we do know positively that 
thousands came who were unable to pay. Shipowners and 
others who had the means furnished the passage money 
to those too poor to pay for themselves, and in return re¬ 
ceived from these persons a promise or bond. This bond 
provided that the person named in it should work for a 
certain number of years to repay the money advanced. 
Such persons were called “indentured servants” and they 
were found throughout the colonies, working in the fields, 
the shops and the homes of the colonists. The term of 
service was from five to seven years. Many found it 


12 Racial Contributions to the United States 

impossible to meet their obligations and their servitude 
dragged on for years. Others, on the contrary, became 
free and prosperous. In Pennsylvania often there were 
as many as fifty bond servants on estates. The condition 
of indentured servants in Virginia “was little better than 
that of slaves. Loose indentures and harsh laws put them 
at the mercy of their masters.” 14 This seems to have been 
their fate in all the colonies, as their treatment depended 
upon the character of their masters. 

Besides these indentured servants who came here vol¬ 
untarily, a large number of early settlers were forced to 
come here. The Irish before mentioned are one example. 
In order to secure settlers, men, women and children were 
kidnapped from the cities and towns and “spirited away” 
to America by the companies and proprietors who had 
colonies here. In 1680 it was officially computed that 
10,000 were sent thus to American shores. In 1627, 
about 1,500 children were shipped to Virginia, probably 
orphans and dependents whom their relatives w-ere un¬ 
willing to support. 15 Another class sent here were con¬ 
victs, the scourings of English centers like Bristol and 
Liverpool. The colonists protested vehemently against this 
practise, but it was continued up to the very end of the 
colonial period, when this convict tide was diverted to 
“Botany Bay.” 

In 1619, another race was brought here against their 
will and sold into slavery. This was the Negro, forced to 
leave his home near the African equator that he might 
contribute to the material wealth of shipmasters and 
planters. Slowly but surely chattel slavery took firm root 
in the South and at last became the leading source of the 

14 Henry Cabot Lodge, A Short History of the English Colonies in 
America, N. Y., 1881, p. 70. 

16 Beard, p. 15. 


Racial Contributions to the United States i 3 

labor supply. The slave traders found it very easy to 
seize Negroes in Africa and make great profits by selling 
them in Southern ports. The English Royal African 
Company sent to America annually between 1713 and 
1743 from 5,000 to 10,000 slaves. 1 ® After a time, when 
the Negroes were so numerous that whole sections were 
overrun, the Southern colonies tried ineffectually to curb 
the trade. Virginia in 1710 placed a duty of five pounds 
on each slave but the Royal Governor vetoed the bill. 
Bills of like import were passed in other colonies from 
time to time, but the English crown disapproved in every 
instance and the trade, so lucrative to British shipowners, 
went on. At the time of the Revolution, there were 
almost half a million slaves in the colonies. 17 The exact 
proportions of the slave trade to America can be but 
approximately determined. From 1680 to 1688 the 
African Company sent 249 ships to Africa, shipped there 
60,783 Negro slaves, and after losing 14,387 on the 
middle passage, delivered 46,396 in America. The trade 
increased early in the eighteenth century, 104 ships clear¬ 
ing for Africa in 1701; it then dwindled until the sign¬ 
ing of the Assiento, standing at 74 clearances in 1724. 
The final dissolution of the monopoly in 1750 led — ex¬ 
cepting in the years 1754-57, when the closing of Spanish 
marts sensibly affected the trade — to an extraordinary 
development, 192 clearances being made in 1771. The 
Revolutionary War nearly stopped the traffic, but by 
1786 the clearances had risen again to 146. 

To these figures must be added the unregistered trade 
of Americans and foreigners. It is probable that about 
25,000 slaves were brought to America each year between 

16 Beard, p. 16. 

17 W. S. Burghardt DuBois, Suppression of the Slave Trade, Harvard 
Historical Studies, No. i, p. 5. 


14 Racial Contributions to the United States 

1698 and 1707. The importation then dwindled but after 
the Assiento rose to perhaps 30,000. The proportion 
of these slaves carried to the continent now began to 
increase. Of about 20,000 whom the English annually 
imported from 1733 to 1766, South Carolina alone re¬ 
ceived some 3,000. Before the Revolution the total ex¬ 
portation to America is variously estimated as between 
40,000 and 100,000 each year. Bancroft places the total 
slave population of the continental colonies at 59,000 in 
1714; 78,000 in 1727; and 293,000 in 1754. The census 
of 1790 showed 697,897 slaves in the United States. Not 
all the Negroes who came to America were slaves and 
not all remained slaves. There were the following free 
Negroes in the decades between 1790 and i860; 


1790 . 59,557 

1800 . 108,435 

1810 . 186,446 

1820 . 233,634 

1830 . 319,599 

1840. 386,293 

1850 . 434,495 

i860. 488,070 


Immigration of Negroes is still taking place, especially 
from the West Indies. It has been estimated that there 
are the following foreign-born Negroes in the United 
States; 


1890 . 

. 19,979 

1900 . 


1910 . 

. 40,339 

1920 . 















Racial Contributions to the United States 15 

In 1790, Negroes were one-fifth of the total population; 
in i860 they were one-seventh; in 1900 one-ninth; 18 
to-day they are approximately one-tenth. 

With the beginning of the national era—1783 — all 
peoples subsequently coming to the United States must be 
classed as immigrants. During the first years of our 
national life, no accurate statistics of immigration were 
kept. The Federal Government took no control of the 
matter and the State records are incomplete and unreli¬ 
able. A pamphlet published by the Bureau of Statistics in 
1903, Immigration into the United States , says, “The 
best estimates of the total immigration into the United 
States prior to the official count puts the total number of 
arrivals at not to exceed 250,000 in the entire period 
between 1776 and 1820.” 

From 1806 to 1816, the unfriendly relations which 
existed between the United States and England and 
France precluded any extensive immigration to this coun¬ 
try. England maintained and for a time successfully en¬ 
forced the doctrine that “a man once a subject was always 
a subject.” The American Merchant Service, because of 
the pay and good treatment given, was very attractive to 
English sailors and a very great enticement to them to 
come to America and enter the American service. How¬ 
ever, the fear of impressment deterred many from so 
doing. The Blockade Decrees of England against France 
in 1806 and the retaliation decrees of France against 
England in that same year were other influences which re¬ 
tarded immigration. These decrees were succeeded by 
the British Orders in Council, the Milan Decree of 
Napoleon, and the United States law of 1809 prohibiting 
intercourse with both Great Britain and France. 

18 John R. Commons, Races and Immigrants in America , N. Y., I 9 ° 7 » 
P- 53 * 


16 Racial Contributions to the United States 

In 1810, the French decrees were annulled and Ameri¬ 
can commerce began again with France, only to have the 
vessels fall into the hands of the British. Then came the 
War of 1812. The German immigration suffered greatly 
from this condition of affairs, as the Germans sailed 
principally from the ports of Liverpool and Havre. At 
these points ships were more numerous and expenses less 
heavy. In December, 1814, a few days before the Battle 
of New Orleans, a treaty of peace was concluded between 
the United States and England and after a few months 
immigration was resumed once more. 

In 1817, about 22,240 persons arrived at ports of the 
United States from foreign countries. This number in¬ 
cluded American citizens returning from abroad. In no 
previous year had so many immigrants come to our 
shores. 

In 1819 a law was passed by Congress and approved 
by the President “regulating passenger ships and vessels.” 
In 1820, the official history of immigration began. The 
Port Collectors then began to keep records which included 
numbers, sexes, ages, and occupations of all incoming 
persons. However, up to 1856, no distinction was made 
between travellers and immigrants. 

Immigration increased from 8,358 in 1820 — of which 
6,024 came from Great Britain and Ireland — to 22,633 
in 1831. 19 The decade of the twenties was a time of 
great industrial activity in the United States. The Erie 
Canal was built, other canals were projected, the rail¬ 
roads were started, business increased by leaps and bounds. 
As a consequence, the demand for labor was imperative 
and Europe responded. During the entire period of our 

19 Adam Seybert, Statistical Annals of the United States, Phila., 1818, 
p. 29. 


Racial Contributions to the United States i 7 

early national life, the United States encouraged the 
coming of foreign artisans and laborers as the necessity for 
strength, skill and courage in the upbuilding of our coun¬ 
try began to be realized. 

From 1831 the number of immigrants steadily in¬ 
creased until from September 30, 1849, to September 30, 
1850, they totaled 3i5>334 2 ° The largest increases dur¬ 
ing those years were from 1845 to 1848, when the famine 
in Ireland and the revolution in Germany drove thou¬ 
sands to the shores of free America. These causes con¬ 
tinued to increase the number of arrivals until in 1854 
the crest was attained with 460,474 s1 — a figure not again 
reached for nearly twenty years. 

From September 30, 1819, when the official count of 
immigrants began to be taken, to December 31, 1855, a 
total of 4,212,624 persons of foreign birth arrived in the 
United States. 22 Of these Bromwell, who wrote in 1856 
a work compiled entirely from official data, estimates that 
1,747,930 were Irish. 28 Next comes Germany, 24 with 
1,206,087; England third with 207,492; France fourth 
with 188,725. 

The exodus of the Irish during those famine years fur¬ 
nishes one of the many examples recorded in history of a 
subject race driven from its home by the economic in¬ 
justice of a dominant race. Later, we see the same thing 
true in Austria-Hungary where the Slavs were tyrannized 
by the Magyars; again we find it in Russia where the 
Jew sought freedom from the Slav; and once again in 
Armenia and Syria where the native people fled from the 
Turk. 

20 Young, Special Report on Immigration, Phila., 1871, p. 5. 

21 Bromwell, p. 145. 

22 Ibid., p. 16. 

23 Ibid., p. 18. 

2 * Ibid., pp. 16-17. 


18 Racial Contributions to the United States 


After 1855, the tide of immigration began to decrease 
steadily. During the first two years of the Civil War, 
it was less than ioo,ooo. 26 In 1863, an increase was 
noticeable again and 395,922** immigrants are recorded 
in 1869. 

During all these years up to 1870, the great part of the 
immigration was from Northern Europe. The largest 
racial groups were composed of Irish, Germans, Scandin¬ 
avians and French. About the middle of the nineteenth 
century French-speaking Canadians were attracted by the 
opportunities for employment in the mills and factories of 
New England. 

The number of Irish coming here steadily decreased 
after 1880 until it has fallen far below that of other 
European peoples. Altogether, the total Irish immigra¬ 
tion from 1820 to 1906 is placed at something over 
4,000,000, thus giving the Irish second place as contribu¬ 
tors to the foreign-born population of the United States. 
The Revolution of 1848 was the contributing cause of a 
large influx of Germans, many of whom were professional 
men and artisans. From 1873 to 1879 there was great 
industrial depression in Germany and consequently an¬ 
other large immigration to America took place. Since 
1882, there has also been a noticeable decline in German 
immigrants. From 1820 to 1903, a total of over 5,000,- 
000 Germans was recorded as coming to the United 
States. 27 

In the period from 1880 to 1910 immigration from 
Italy totaled 4,018,404. It will be remembered that the 
law requiring the registration of outgoing aliens was not 
passed until 1908, and it may, therefore, be estimated that 


25 Young, p. 6. 

2 a Ibid., 0.6. 

87 Special Consular Reports, Vol. 30, p. 


Racial Contributions to the United States 19 

3,000,000 represents the total number of arrivals from 
Italy, who remained here permanently. 

After 1903, up to the outbreak of the Great War, the 
number of alien arrivals steadily increased. In 1905, it 
was more than 1,000,000; in 1906, it passed the 1,100,000 
mark and in 1907 the 1,200,000 mark; in 1913 and 1914, 
the total number for each year exceeded 1,400,000.* 8 

During the ten years from 1905 to 1915, nearly 12,- 
000,000 aliens landed in the United States, a yearly aver¬ 
age of 1,200,000 arrivals. These alone form more than 
37 per cent, of all recorded immigration since 1820 and 
make up about 88 out of every 100 of our present total 
foreign-born population.* 9 . Until interrupted by the 
European War, the immigration to the United States was 
the greatest movement of the largest number of peoples 
that the world has ever known. Of course, there have 
been economic upheavals from time to time which have 
noticeably affected this movement. The Civil War, as 
before noted, and financial panics and industrial depres¬ 
sions in our country interrupted the incoming tide re¬ 
peatedly. The Great War with its social and economic 
upheaval had a tremendous effect on our immigration. 
The twelve months following the declaration of war 
shows the smallest number of alien arrivals since 1899. 
The number was slightly over 325,000. The statistics 
compiled by the Federal Bureau of Immigration show 
that by far the greater part of the immigrants who come 
to the United States are from Europe. Of the 1,403,000 
alien immigrants who came here in 1914, about 1,114,000 
were from Europe; about 35,000 came from Asia; the 
remainder, about 254,000, came from all other countries 

88 Immigration and Emigration , Bureau of Labor Statistic!, Washing¬ 
ton, 1915, p. 1099. 

8 9 Ibid. 


20 Racial Contributions to the United States 

combined, principally Canada, the West Indies, and 
Mexico. Eighty out of every 100, therefore, came from 
Europe. As many as sixty of that eighty came from the 
three countries of Italy, Austria-Hungary and Russia. 
Italy sent 294,689; Austria-Hungary was second with 
286,059; Russian contributed 262,409. From all of Eng¬ 
land, Ireland, Scotland and Wales came only 88,000 or 
about 6 out of every 100; and from Norway, Sweden and 
Denmark came about 31,000 or 2 out of every 100. 

Greece, France, Portugal, Bulgaria, Montenegro, 
Spain, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, 
and Roumania contributed virtually all the remainder of 
our 1914 immigrants from Europe, given in the order of 
importance. 

However, we should bear in mind always that the 
country of origin or nationality or jurisdiction (as deter¬ 
mined by political boundaries) is not always identical with 
race. Immigration statistics have followed national or 
political boundaries. Take the immigrants from Russia. 
The statistics say that 262,000 arrived from that country 
in 1914* But of this number, less than 5 out of every 100 
are Russians; the rest or 95 out of every 100, are He¬ 
brews, Poles, Lithuanians, Finns and Germans. 
v Austria-Hungary was anotfier country made of a med¬ 
ley of races. The Germanic Austrians who ruled Austria 
and the Hungarian Magyars who ruled Hungary were 
less than one-half of the total population of the one 
time Austria-Hungary. 

The record of alien arrivals from Poland is not accu¬ 
rate because it is divided into three national statistical 
divisions — Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary. 
The best estimate is that the total Polish arrivals to the 
United States since 1820 approximates 2,500,000. 


Racial Contributions to the United States 21 

The Slav, the Magyar, the German, the Latin, and the 
Jew were all in Austria-Hungary and moreover, these 
were all numerously subdivided. The most numerous of 
the Slavs are the Czechs and Slovaks. These gave the 
United States in 1914 a combined immigration of 37,000. 
Poles, Ruthenians and Roumanians also came here from 
northern Austria, and from the vicinity of the Black Sea 
came Roumanians more Latin than Slavic. Besides these, 
the one time dual kingdom sent Jews, Greeks and Turks. 

Although the most important Slavic country of Europe 
is Russia, yet it was from Austria-Hungary that we re¬ 
ceived most of our Slavic immigrants. In 1914, as many 
as 23 out of every 100 of our total immigration were 
Slavic, and the larger part of this racial group which 
reached 319,000 that year, came from Austria-Hungary. 

That mere recording of country or origin does not give 
accurate racial information is illustrated in the case of the 
many Greeks under Turkish rule, and the large number 
of Armenians found in almost all large Turkish towns. 
The Armenians are probably the most numerous of the 
immigrants from Asia. In 1914, the total immigration 
from Turkey was about 20,000, but the actual Turkish 
immigration was only 3,000. The remaining 27,000 were 
Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians, Montenegrins, Syrians, 
Armenians and Hebrews. 30 

The “country of origin” tells us almost nothing about 
the large Hebrew immigration which comes to the United 
States. The Jew comes from many countries. The 
greater part of all our recent Jewish immigration comes 
from Russia, from what is called the “Jewish Pale of 
Settlement” in the western part of that country. Other 
Jews ccme from Austria, Roumania, Germany and Tur- 

80 Reports of Department of Labor, Washington, 1915. 


22 Racial Contributions to the United States 

key. In 1914, the Jews were the fourth largest in num¬ 
bers among our immigrants, nearly 143,000/ 1 

We must also bear in mind that all of these millions 
who came to America do not remain with us. There is a 
constant emigration going on, a departure of aliens back 
to their native land either for a time, or for all time. Up 
to 1908, the Bureau of Immigration kept no record of the 
‘‘ebb of the tide” but since that time vessels taking aliens 
out of the United States, are obliged by law to make a list 
containing name, age, sex, nationality, residence in the 
United States, occupation, and time of last arrival of each 
alien passenger, which must be filed with the Federal 
Collector of Customs. 

The first year of this record, 1908, followed the finan¬ 
cial panic of October, 1907, and due to the economic 
conditions prevalent in the United States a very large 
emigration to Europe was disclosed. 

The records show also that the volume of emigration, 
like that of immigration, varies from year to year. Just 
as prosperity here increases immigration, “bad” times in¬ 
crease emigration from our shores. 

There was a time when emigration was so slight that it 
was of little importance, but since the early nineties it 
has assumed large proportions. After the panic of 1907, 
for months a larger number left the country than came 
into it, and thousands and thousands swarmed the ports 
of departure awaiting a chance to return home. In the 
earlier years, the immigrant sometimes spent months mak¬ 
ing the journey here. Besides the difficulty of the trip, 
ocean transportation was more expensive. Therefore, the 
earlier immigrants came to remain, to make homes here 
for themselves and their children. The Irish, the Ger- 


31 Ibid. 


Racial Contributions to the United States 23 

mans, the early Bohemians, the Scandinavians, and in fact 
all the early comers brought their families and their 
“household goods”, ready to settle down for all time and 
to become citizens of their adopted country. 

A large number of the alien arrivals of recent years 
come here initially with only a vague intention of remain¬ 
ing permanently, and these make up the large emigration 
streaming constantly from our ports. However, it is 
only fair to say that eventually many of these people come 
back to America and become permanent residents. Any¬ 
one who has had experience at our ports of entry can sub¬ 
stantiate the statement that during a period of years the 
same faces are seen incoming again and again. 

Although immigrants have come by millions into the 
United States, and have been the main contributing cause 
of its wonderful national expansion, yet opposition to 
their coming has manifested itself strongly at different 
times. 

In the colonial period the people objected, and rightly, 
to the maternal solicitude which England evidenced by 
making the colonies the dumping ground for criminals 
and undesirables. However, these objections were dis¬ 
regarded and convicts and criminals continued to come 
while the colonies remained under British rule. 

After the national era, immigration was practically 
unrestricted down to 1875* At different periods there 
were manifestations of a strong desire to restrict immigra¬ 
tion, but Congress never responded with exclusion laws. 
The alien and sedition laws of 1798 had for their object 
the removal of foreigners already residents in the United 
States. The naturalization laws passed that same year, 
lengthening the time of residence necessary for citizenship 
to fourteen years, were another severe measure against 


24 Racial Contributions to the United States 

resident aliens. The native American and the Know- 
nothing uprisings were still other indications of that same 
spirit of antagonism to the alien based on religious 
grounds. This religious antagonism in many of the States 
took the form of opposition to immigration itself and a 
demand for restrictions. But this all proved futile, for 
the National Government recognized the necessity of 
settling the limitless West. Then, too, another subject 
loomed large and threatening at this time, and engrossed 
the attention of the people away from the dire evils which 
the Irish and the Catholics would precipitate upon “our 
free and happy people”. This was the State Rights and 
Slavery question; and soon the country forgot immigra¬ 
tion in the throes of the Civil War. 

By an act of March 3, 1875, the National Government 
made its first attempt to restrict immigration; this act 
prohibited the bringing in of alien convicts and of women 
for immoral purposes. On May 6, 1882, Congress passed 
and the President approved another act “to regulate 
immigration”, by which the coming of Chinese laborers 
was forbidden for ten years. The story which led up to 
this Act of Congress is a long one, and the details cannot 
be given here. Briefly, conditions in California following 
the Burlingame treaty of 1868, owning to the influx of 
Chinese labor, resulted in the organization of a working¬ 
man’s party headed by Dennis Kearney, and forced the 
Chinese question as one of the dominant issues of State 
politics. Resolutions embodying the feelings of the people 
on Chinese immigration were presented to the Constitu¬ 
tional Convention of 1879. The State Legislature en¬ 
acted laws against this immigration. Subsequently pres¬ 
sure was brought to bear on the National Government, a 
new treaty with China was negotiated, and finally the law 


Racial Contributions to the United States 25 

of 1882 was passed by Congress, restricting for ten years 
the admission of Chinese laborers, both skilled and un¬ 
skilled, and of mine workers also. 

Ever since the passage of this law, the Federal Govern¬ 
ment has pursued a more restrictive and exclusive immi¬ 
gration policy. The next law was passed in August, 1882, 
prohibiting the immigration of “any convict, lunatic, idiot, 
or any person unable to take care of himself or herself 
without becoming a public charge.” Then, in 1885, came 
another act known as the “Alien Contract Labor Law”, 
forbidding the importation and immigration of foreigners 
and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor 
in the United States. In 1891 came the law called the 
“Geary Act” which amended “the various acts relative to 
immigration and the importation of aliens under contract 
or agreement to perform labor”. This act extended 
Chinese exclusion for another ten years, and required the 
Chinese in the country to register and submit to the 
Bertillon test as a means of identification. In 1893 two 
acts were passed; one which gave the quarantine service 
greater powers and placed additional duties upon the 
Public Health Service, and another which properly en¬ 
forced the existing immigration and contract labor laws. 
In 1902 the law of exclusion was made permanent against 
Chinese laborers. So, since 1875, the United States has 
passed laws excluding Chinese entirely and virtually ex¬ 
cluding the Japanese, and both these races are ineligible 
to citizenship. In 1907, an act was passed “to regulate 
the immigration of Aliens into the United States”, which 
excluded imbeciles, epileptics, those so defective either 
physically or mentally that they might become public 
charges; children under sixteen not with a parent, etc. 

A far more restrictive measure known as the “literacy” 


26 Racial Contributions to the United States 

or “educational” test has been before Congress at different 
times and has, on three different occasions, falied to be¬ 
come a law. President Cleveland vetoed it in 1897* Taft 
in 1913, and Wilson in 1915. All three Presidents ob¬ 
jected to this bill principally on the ground that it was 
such “a radical departure” from all previous national 
policy in regard to immigration. President Wilson’s veto 
of 1917 was overcome and the bill became a law by a 
two-thirds majority vote of both houses. This law re¬ 
quires that entering aliens must be able to read the English 
language or some other language or dialect. The one 
thing which the literacy test was designed to accomplish 
— to decrease the volume of immigration — was brought 
about suddenly and unexpectedly by the European War. 
From the opening of the war, the number of immigrants 
steadily decreased until, for the year ending June 30, 
1916, it was only 298,826** and for the year ending June 
30, 1917, only iio,6i8 .* # Then it began again to in¬ 
crease steadily until for the year ending June 30, 1920, 
it reached a total of 430,001. 3 4 

On June 3, 1921, an emergency measure known as the 
three per cent, law was passed. This act provided that 
the number of aliens of any nationality who could be 
admitted to the United States in any one year should be 
limited to three per cent, of the number of foreign-born 
persons of such nationality resident in the United States 
as determined by the census of 1910. Certain ones were 
not counted, such as foreign government officials and their 
families and employees, aliens in transit through the 
United States, tourists, aliens from countries having im¬ 
migration treaties with the United States, aliens who 

33 Reports of Department of Labor, Washington, 1918, p. 208. 

Reports of Department of Labor, Washington, 1920, p. 400. 

84 Reports of Department of Labor, Washington, 1921, p. 365. 


Racial Contributions to the United States 27 

have lived for one year previous to their admission in 
Canada, Newfoundland, Mexico, Central America, or 
South America, and aliens under eighteen who have par¬ 
ents who are American citizens. More than twenty per 
cent, of a country’s full quota could not be admitted in 
one month except in the case of actors, artists, lecturers, 
singers, nurses, clergymen, professors, members of the 
learned professions or domestic servants who could always 
come in even though the month’s or the year’s quota had 
been used. 

A well organized effort is under way in the Congress 
which began its session in December 1923, to reduce the 
quota to two per cent, of the immigrants recorded as 
coming to the United States in 1890. This bill, which 
will probably be passed, is being opposed vigorously, by 
the Jews and Italians who are immediately the particular 
racial groups to be affected, but since neither the Jews 
nor Italians, separately or collectively, have political 
strength to be a voting factor to be considered, except in 
a half dozen of the industrial states, the passage of the 
bill seems to be inevitable. 

The recent immigration restriction laws make a de¬ 
cided break with past national history and tradition. 
There is little doubt that these laws are in part the fruit 
of an organized movement which, especially since the war, 
is attempting to classify all aliens, except those of one 
special group, as “hyphenates” and “mongrels”. These 
laws are haphazard, unscientific, based on unworthy preju¬ 
dice and likely, ultimately, to be disastrous in their eco¬ 
nomic consequences. The present three per cent, immi¬ 
gration law is not based on any fundamental standard of 
fitness. Once the percentage of maximum admissions is 
reached, in any given month, the next alien applying for 


28 Racial Contributions to the United States 

entrance may be a potential Washington, Lincoln or 
Edison to whom the unyielding process of the law must 
deny admission. Such laws, worked out under the hysteria 
of “after war psychology”, seem to be one of the instances, 
so frequent in history, where Democracy must take time 
to work out its own mistakes. 

Under the circumstances, there is all the more reason 
that the priceless heritage of racial achievement by the 
descendants of various racial groups in the United States 
be told. 

The United States has departed a long way from the 
policy which was recorded in 1795 by the series of coins 
known as the “Liberty and Security” coins, on which 
appeared the words “A Refuge for the Oppressed of all 
Nations”. 



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THE JEWS IN THE MAKING 
OF AMERICA 



THE JEWS IN THE MAKING 
OF AMERICA 

CHAPTER I 

THE JEWS AND THE DISCOVERY OF 
AMERICA 

“History repeats itself and historians repeat 
each other,” remarked once the witty English 
writer, Max Beerbohm. It is perhaps, due to this 
dominant instinct in historians for repetition that 
we owe the wide prevalence of the legend concern¬ 
ing Isabella and her jewels. Research has already 
relegated the story to the realm of the imagina¬ 
tive, but it seems to persist with all the vitality of 
untruth. In explaining the voyage of Columbus 
it would be much more appropriate to apply the 
injunction of James Russell Lowell, “cherchez le 
Juif” (look for the Jew), and then we could ap¬ 
proach the realm of historical reality. 

“Not jewels, but Jews, were the real financial 
basis of the first expedition of Columbus,” wrote 
the late Prof. Herbert B. Adams in one of the his- 
33 


34 The Jews in the Making of America 

torical studies published by Johns Hopkins Uni¬ 
versity (Series Z Columbus and His Discovery of 
America). His verdict was based on the work 
of Prof. Moses Kayserling, the great Jewish 
scholar of Budapest, who unearthed a mass of 
new historical data concerning Spanish Jewish his¬ 
tory. The latter’s volume entitled “Christopher 
Columbus and the Participation of the Jews in the 
Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries” was instru¬ 
mental in revealing for the first time the relation 
between the discovery of the New World and the 
dissolution of Spanish Jewry in the old world. 

The Spanish Court was lukewarm to the whole 
proposition which Columbus laid before it. He 
had demanded from the Spanish sovereigns that 
in case the venture succeeded he would be given 
the position—Admiral, Viceroy and Life Gover¬ 
nor of the new possessions. This the court re¬ 
fused, and Columbus began to try his fortune with 
the French rulers. What the ultimate outcome 
of the venture would have been is difficult to say 
had there not stepped in at this psychological 
moment the figure of a Jew. 

Luis de Santangel was the chief sponsor of 
Columbus at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella. 
His family was one of the oldest and most power¬ 
ful in Valencia and Saragossa. Like most of the 
Marranos (secret Jews) they bitterly fought the 


The Jews in the Making of America 35 

introduction of the Inquisition. The family was 
imprisoned and later some of its members were 
burned at the stake. The first two who paid the 
supreme penalty for practicing Jewish rites, were 
Martin de Santangel who was burned in i486 and 
Mosen Luis de Santangel, the father-in-law of the 
treasurer of Aragon, Gabriel Sanchez, who was 
burned July 10, 1489. Some of the members be¬ 
came penitents and arrayed in their Sanbenitos 
paraded publicly as a sign of their renunciation of 
Judaism. 

Among the latter was Luis de Santangel, son of 
Luis de Santangel, farmer of royal taxes and cus¬ 
toms and nephew of Luis de Santangel who was 
burned at the stake in Saragossa. The younger Luis 
was an impressive and brilliant personality and 
despite his obvious Jewish connections and earlier 
faith, became a powerful figure at the Court of 
Ferdinand and Isabella. When the King wrote to 
him he addressed him as “A Good Aragonese, 
Excellent Well-Beloved Councillor.” Commerce 
was the specialty of Luis de Santangel. At Val¬ 
encia he was at the head of a large mercantile 
house and was also farmer of the royal customs. 
He had commercial intercourse with Genoese mer¬ 
chants long before Columbus came to Spain. It 
was undoubtedly through some of these merchants 
that Columbus gained the ear of Santangel and 


36 The Jews in the Making of America 

won him over to his project. Santangel became the 
sponsor for Columbus. Aided by the royal 
Chamberlain, Juan Cabrero, another secret Jew, 
he paved the way for Columbus’ success. Juan 
Cabrero, it may be remarked in passing, though 
some of his relatives had been burned at the stake, 
was a great influence at court and was named by 
Ferdinand as one of the executors of his will. Sev¬ 
eral others of Jewish blood took up the cudgels 
for the explorer, among them Gabriel Sanchez, 
treasurer of Aragon, and Alphonso Caballeria. 

They interposed their influence at the court of 
Spain. Luis Santangel particularly was grieved 
when the negotiations were broken off. “He felt 
as much sorrow and distress” writes the contempo¬ 
rary historian Las Casas in his ‘Historia de La 
Indias,’ “as if he himself had been afflicted with 
some great misfortune.” He went to the Queen 
and spoke lengthily and persuasively. He ex¬ 
pressed his surprise that the Queen had not the 
courage to participate in a voyage which would 
rebound greatly to the honor and glory of the 
country. Many eminent scholars had stated that 
the plan was feasible and that no valid arguments 
could be adduced against it. If, as Columbus pre¬ 
dicted, some other European powers would have 
the good fortune to act as his patron and to reap 
the fruits of this discovery, the Kingdom of Spain, 


The Jews in the Making of America 


37 


its rulers and the whole nation would suffer much 
shame. 

This interview, described fully by Las Casas, 
was the pivotal point of the whole undertaking. 
The Queen was persuaded by the force of San- 
tangel’s arguments to consent to the undertaking 
but declared that the financial resources of the 
country were depleted. Santangel answered that 
he would make arrangements to secure the money 
necessary for the voyage and would indeed be 
pleased to perform so small a service for the King 
and Queen. The story of Isabella’s jewels is not 
founded on facts. The Spanish Academician 
Cesareo Fernandez Duro has shown that the tale 
of the jewels was but an invention intended to 
glorify the Queen. 

The account books which are still preserved in 
the Spanish archives amply confirm the statement 
that Santangel secured the money for the voyage. 
He had occupied for some time the position of 
treasurer in a secret fraternity called the Holy 
Brotherhood and upon his solicitation and that of 
his friends, the money necessary for the expedition 
was finally secured from this organization. One 
account book contains a record of 1,400,000 mara- 
vedis given by Santangel to the Bishop of Avila 
for the expedition. Another record contains the 
statement that on May 5th, 1492, the sum of 


38 The Jews in the Making of America 


1,140,000 maravedis was paid to Santangel in re¬ 
turn for the money “which he advanced to equip 
the caravels ordered by their majesties for the 
expedition to the West Indies and to pay Chris¬ 
topher Columbus the Admiral of the fleet.” 
Again on May 20, 1493, a date on which Ferdi¬ 
nand is known to have occupied himself with 
Columbus and his expedition, the Treasurer 
General, Gabriel Sanchez, was ordered to pay 
Santangel the sum of 30,000 gold florins. 

Columbus was called back by the Court’s 
messenger. He returned to Granada and in April, 
1492, the articles of agreement known as the 
capitulations of Santa Fe were signed granting 
Columbus all he asked. The explorer then sailed 
for the new world. “After the [Spanish] mon- 
archs had expelled all the Jews from their king¬ 
doms and lands in January, in that same month 
they commissioned me to undertake the voyage to 
India with a properly equipped fleet,” writes 
Columbus in his diary. 

What were the motives which led Santangel, 
Gabriel Sanchez, Juan de Cabrero and these other 
Jews to support this expedition across the un¬ 
fathomed deep? Why, one is impelled to ask, 
did the temporary severance of relations between 
the Spanish Court and Columbus make Santangel 
so sad that, in the words of Las Casas “he felt as 


The Jews in the Making of America 39 

much sorrow and distress as if he himself had 
been afflicted with some great misfortune.” 

No understanding of the forces that made pos¬ 
sible the voyage of Columbus can be had without 
a conception of the position of the Spanish Jews. 
The very kith and kin of Santangel and the others 
were fleeing in every direction. The Jews were 
being exiled, but no haven of refuge was open. 
Here and there some refugees found a rest. Hol¬ 
land, Turkey, North Africa and Italy, where in 
the shadow of the Vatican they met with great 
tolerance, accepted a number. Others drifted aim¬ 
lessly on the water, thousands of others were cap¬ 
tured by pirates and sold as slaves. 

More than once there must have entered the 
minds of Santangel and the others that here in the 
country about to be opened up to international 
commerce a channel of escape might be created for 
the fleeing Jews; that now their sorely tried breth¬ 
ren would have a chance to find life and liberty. 
The expedition of Columbus was at least some¬ 
thing to seize on, it offered some hope of a solu¬ 
tion from the insoluble problem of how to save 
the remnants of a once proud and prosperous 
Jewry. This feeling for kith and kin may partly 
explain the deep felt grief of Santangel at the 
temporary break up of relations; this conception 
of their duty undoubtedly led these Spanish Jews 


40 The Jews in the Making of America 

to support Columbus and to make possible the dis¬ 
covery of America. The judgment of Santangel 
was vindicated by history, for no sooner was 
America discovered than large numbers of Jews 
flocked to the West Indies where they introduced 
the cultivation of sugar. 

Santangel was recognized by Columbus as being 
the personality instrumental in the success of the 
expedition. After the explorer had discovered 
land, he regarded it as his duty to send the glad 
tidings of his success, not to the King or to the 
Queen, but to Santangel. He wrote a detailed 
account of his voyage. This letter was written in 
Spanish near the Canary Islands on February 15, 
1493. He made another report to Sanchez. 
Later, both letters were sent to Ferdinand and 
Isabella, who received Columbus with much cere¬ 
mony. 

After his return Columbus began preparations 
for his second journey. The first financial re¬ 
sources having been exhausted it became necessary 
to look about for new wealth which might be 
utilized for sending forth the squadron again. 
Ferdinand did not have to seek far, for he had 
ascertained that the Jews, expelled from his King¬ 
dom, had left behind them money or its equivalent 
in real and personal property as well as many 
debts which they had been unable to collect. Ac- 


The Jews in the Making of America 41 

cordingly a royal order was issued, in which the 
authorities were commanded to confiscate for the 
state all the property which had belonged to the 
Jews, including that which had been forcefully 
taken from them by Christians. Even those 
valuables which the fleeing Jews had left with their 
baptized relatives were seized and converted into 
money to meet the expenses of the expedition. 
Mantles which had been used to cover the scrolls 
of the Law were seized and sold to provide money. 
According to a royal order of May 23rd, 1493, it 
was from this fund that 10,000 maravedis were 
paid to Columbus upon his return as the reward 
for him who would sight land first. This second 
successful consummation of the voyage was made 
possible to some extent with money directly taken 
from Jewish sources. 

Was Columbus himself a Jew? The most 
erudite protagonist of this theory is the learned 
Spanish Churchman, Don Celso Garcia de la 
Riega, a scholar famous for his researches on the 
life of the great discoverer. By referring to docu¬ 
ments in the town of Pontavedra in the Province 
of Galicia, he demonstrated that the family of 
Colon (the Spanish form of Columbus’ family 
name) lived there between 1428 and 1528. The 
first names found among them were the same as 
prevalent among the relatives of the Spanish 


42 The Jews in the Making of America 

admiral. These Colons and the Fonterossa family 
intermarried. The latter, asserts Garcia de la 
Riega, were undoubtedly Jewish or had been re¬ 
cently converted to Catholicism. Christopher’s 
mother was a Fonterossa. When disorders broke 
out, the parents of the discoverer went from Spain 
to Italy and settled there. Furthermore, asserts 
this scholar, both the Jewish appearance of Col¬ 
umbus and the great familiarity which he dis¬ 
played with the Bible tend to confirm the theory of 
his Jewish origin. 

But whatever the origin of Columbus his first 
two voyages would probably have been impossible 
without Jewish aid. Not only did they make 
arrangements to secure the financial prerequisites, 
but the scientific data necessary came from Jewish 
sources. The Almanach Perpetuus originally 
written in Hebrew by the Jewish scholar, Abra¬ 
ham Zacuto, was of great help to the discoverer 
who refers to it in his reminiscences. As Joseph 
Jacobs writes in his “Jewish Contributions to 
Civilization,” “practically all the astronomical 
tables which were used by astronomers, astrolo¬ 
gers, map-makers and mariners (including Col¬ 
umbus in the last named) were made by Jews, who 
also contributed some of the more important 
Portulani by which the seamen steered. So, too, 
the chief instruments for taking observations on 


The Jews in the Making of America 43 

board, the Jacob’s Staff and the new quadrant, 
were due to Levi ben Gerson and Jacob ben 
Makir.” Columbus’ copy of Zacuto’s table, with 
glosses and notes, still exists in Spain, and the copy 
of this work, it may be added, was given to him 
by Joseph Vizino, another Jew and a pupil of 
Zacuto himself. 

The complete list of men who accompanied Col¬ 
umbus on his epoch making voyage has fortu¬ 
nately been preserved. Several distinctly Jewish 
names appear but it is doubtful as to whether 
these constituted the entire number of Jews on the 
three ships. It was very difficult to find sailors 
to man the vessels. What was to prevent numbers 
of these Jews, despairing and despondent, from 
seizing this opportunity to find a possible home? 
They had nothing to lose, for they had nowhere 
to go. There has come down to us the name of 
Luis de Torres, a Jew who had occupied a posi¬ 
tion under the Governor of Murcia. Torres was 
employed as the interpreter of the ship, for he 
understood Arabic, Hebrew and Chaldee. Another 
Jew was Alonzo de Calle. His name was derived 
from the “Jews’ lane.” A secret Jew, Roderigo 
Sanchez, a relative to Gabriel Sanchez, the 
treasurer, took part in the expedition at the ex¬ 
press request of Queen Isabella. The physician, 


44 The Jews in the Making of America 

Maestro Bernal, was a Jew, as was Marco, the 
surgeon on board ship. 

Columbus took possession of the land for the 
rulers of Spain. In an endeavor to elicit some in¬ 
formation from the natives he sent Luis de 
Torres, the Jew, and another sailor to make the 
first exploration of the vicinity. Torres returned 
after four days, and in his report to Columbus, 
among other things said he found men and women 
with fire in their hands, with which they lit one end 
of a small roll held in the mouth. It resembled 
dry leaves and was called tobacco. They inhaled 
the other end of the little roll, and blew forth 
great clouds of smoke through the mouth and 
nose. Torres, who was the first European to dis¬ 
cover the use of the weed, was also the first 
person to settle in Haiti. 

Attempts have been made to identify the natives 
with the lost ten tribes of Israel. A Spanish 
clerygman, Poldan, was the first to propound the 
theory in the sixteenth century. In 1650 an Eng¬ 
lishman, Thorowgood, wrote on behalf of the 
same theory, which was held independently by 
Manasseh ben Israel, a renowned rabbi of Amster¬ 
dam. Others have also written in the same strain. 
Similarities in names, customs, and habits have 
been noted. Even in recent times, the English¬ 
man, Lord Kingborough, devoted his time, a large 


The Jews in the Making of America 45 

amount of money and his scholarship to the publi¬ 
cation of a collection of American documents in 
order to prove the Jewish origin of the natives of 
the New World. 

The exponents of this theory have pointed out 
an alleged similarity between Hebrew and some of 
the Indian dialects. Iowa, for example, is be¬ 
lieved to be but another rendition of Yehovah. 
Moreover, such customs as circumcision, absten¬ 
tion from touching the dead and from the tasting 
of blood, the keeping of definite fast days, sacri¬ 
fice of first fruits on high mountains, the carrying 
of a holy ark in time of war, are known to have 
existed among the Indians. Again the existence 
of Jewish facial types is occasionally to be found 
among the American aborigines. Nevertheless, 
ethnology has rendered no definite verdict as to 
the origin of the people whom de Torres first 
saw on the land which was destined to become 
America. 


CHAPTER II 

THE JEW AND AMERICAN IDEALS 

It was the enterprise of Jews that aided in the 
consummation of Columbus’ epoch making voy¬ 
age of discovery, and it was in a large measure 
Jewish ideals and Biblical influences which played 
a prominent part in its foundation. “Hebraic 
mortar,” wrote Lecky, “cemented the foundations 
of American democray.” The direct influence of 
Jewish personalities was only partially apparent, 
but on the other hand there was present the pow¬ 
erful leaven of that Jewish book which for the 
founders of America contained all the earthly 
wisdom. 

If, as Heine declared, “Protestantism is simply 
a Judaism that allows you to eat pork,” then 
Puritanism is the most Jewish of all Protestant 
sects. The Pilgrims were the Separatist group 
among the Puritans. Raised and nourished on the 
Bible, they suffered all the agonies of a spiritual 
bondage both in England and in Holland. Like 
Israel they thought themselves the saved remnant 
of an irredeemable mankind; like Israel they 
46 


The Jews in the Making of America 47 

found themselves rejected of a majority and the 
object of their hatred. These dissenters called 
themselves “Christian Israel.” England was “the 
land of bondage,” James I was “Pharoah,” the 
Atlantic Ocean was the “Red Sea,” and America 
was the “New Canaan.” 

The thing to be done by these Pilgrim fathers 
seemed foreordained in their sacred Bible. The 
course of action was already outlined, and its path 
was to be the path of ancient Israel. The exodus 
from Egypt was their inspiration, so “Christian 
Israel” duplicated and followed the pathway of 
the Jewish Israel. “To America whither the 
Shekinah had guided them through the sea,” even 
as, when Jehovah had guided his chosen people 
over the Red Sea, Israel had gone forth and 
created a theocracy in Canaan, so they, too, would 
go forth and create another theocracy in the 
New Canaan. 

A generation of Christians raised leisurely in 
the Sunday Schools and having but a superficial 
acquaintance with the Bible can little realize the 
intense and far reaching role of that book in the 
lives of their forefathers. They were nearer to 
the Old Testament than to the New. They bor¬ 
rowed their nomenclature from that book. Even 
in their invective they used Jewish terms. “Anna 
Hutchinson was a wretched Jezebel.” Every 


48 The Jews in the Making of America 

happening, every personality was seen through 
Hebraic spectacles. Governor Bradford, in his 
“History of the Plymouth Plantation,” describes 
the removal from Leyden and the joy of their 
enemies who had slandered them “as if that state 
had been wearie of them, and had rather driven 
them out (as the heathen historians did faine of 
Moyses and the Israelites when they went out of 
Egipte) ” 

Their career was to a certain extent parallel to 
the career of the ancient Jewish people. In the 
new land they sought to find a haven of refuge 
and to worship God according to their own tradi¬ 
tions. The problem of subduing the surrounding 
tribes faced the Puritans and they proceeded to act 
in the fashion of the ancient Jews. Their career 
was to be a duplication of the career of the People 
of the Book. “It appears,” writes one of the 
early colonists, “that God calls the colonies to 
warr. The Narrohgansetts and confederates rest 
on their numbers, weapons and opportunities to do 
mischeefe as probably of ould, Ashur, Amalek, 
and the Philistines with others did confederate 
against Israeli.” Their eventual triumph must 
have seemed to them foreordained just as the 
triumph of their Jewish spiritual fathers was fore¬ 
ordained over the Amalekites and the Philistines. 

The leaders of the colony were in their spiritual 


The Jews in the Making of America 49 

makeup simply a far flung branch of the House of 
Israel. Culturally they were Jews as much as non- 
Jews possibly can be. They absorbed in the fullest 
manner the spirit of the Jew as manifested in 
Biblical literature. Nor did they stop at the Eng¬ 
lish rendition of the Bible. What they sought, 
was to decipher the original Hebrew so that they 
might still further master every available bit of 
Jewish learning. Francis Baylies in his “Historical 
Memoir of the Colony of New Plymouth” makes 
the assertion that all the clergy among the Pilgrim 
Fathers were skilled critics in Hebrew. This per¬ 
haps might be overstating the point; but when one 
reads Bradford’s pathetic delineation of his 
attempts to master Hebrew so that he might 
“learn in their own tongue how the patriarchs 
communed with God,” we get a glimpse of this 
Hebraized Puritan mentality. Holland, the place 
of their temporary sojourn, contained large num¬ 
bers of Jews who had come from Spain, and these 
Jews furnished the Pilgrim clerics with the knowl¬ 
edge of the original Biblical tongue. 

“Christ did, indeed occupy a place in their 
theology, but in spirit they may be considered as 
Jews and not Christians. Their God was the God 
of the Old Testament, their laws were the laws 
of the Old Testament, their guides to conduct 
were the characters of the Old Testament.” Thus 


50 The Jews in the Making of America 

writes James Truslow Adams in his brilliant work 
on “The Founding of New England.” 

It was the profoundest of contemporary He¬ 
brew philosophers, Achad Haam, who remarked 
that not only did the Jewish people create the 
Bible but that the Bible created the Jewish people. 
What was true of Israel was true of the New 
England Fathers. The persistence of Israel in a 
hostile environment can be attributed to its faith 
that it is a separate minority, to the faith that 
Jehovah is with it and that it will inevitably be 
redeemed, to its self-discipline and austerity, to 
its strength of will, all characteristics which flow 
from its Biblical tradition. In the case of 
America, less stubborn breeds came, saw and were 
conquered by the inhospitable environment; 
among those that persisted the Puritans stood 
foremost. And they persisted precisely because of 
those characteristics engendered by their Biblical 
theology. Their disciplined minds, their obstinacy 
and strength of will, their sublime faith that Je¬ 
hovah was with them, all these factors which were 
the fruits of their Hebraic culture made possible 
their ultimate triumph and insured the continuity 
of their settlements. Thanks to their Hebraic 
tenacity the foundations of Now England were 
laid. 

Their laws they copied from the Hebraic 


The Jews in the Making of America 51 

model. In this commonwealth there was, as 
Fiske writes, “the same ethical impulse which ani¬ 
mates the glowing pages of Hebrew poets and 
prophets, and which has given to the history and 
literature of Israel their commanding influence in 
the world.” The foreword of the 1658 revision 
of the Pilgrim Code reads that “it was the great 
priviledge of Israeli of old, and soe was acknowl¬ 
edged by them, Nehemiah the 9th and 13. That 
God gave them right judgements and true Lawes, 
. . . and accordingly wee . . . can safely say 
. . . that wee have had an eye primarily and 
principally unto the aforsaid Platforme.” 

In the historic correspondence in 1642 between 
Bradford, Partridge, Reyner and Chauncey of 
Plymouth with Governor Bellingham of Massa¬ 
chusetts, there is established for the guidance of 
the colony the principle that “ye judicials of 
Moyses are immutable and perpetual.” In fram¬ 
ing the capital laws of the colony, legislators 
sought to harmonize their ideas with Biblical 
ideas by appending Mosaic quotations. This 
Biblical influence was paramount in all the New 
England colonies. In the Connecticut code of 
1650, the Mosaic model is adopted. Magistrates 
are empowered to ^administer justice “according to 
the laws here established and for want of them 
according to the word of God.” In New Haven 


52 The Jews in the Making of America 

also the extension of Jewish influence was visible. 
The founders of the colony, John Davenport and 
Theophilus Eaton, were expert Hebrew scholars. 
Davenport introduced the study of Hebrew in the 
first public school in New Haven. 

In New Haven’s declaration of legislative prin¬ 
ciples, there is found the doctrine that “the judi¬ 
cial laws of God as they were delivered by Moses, 
and as they are a fence to the moral law, being 
neither typical or ceremonial, nor had any refer¬ 
ence to Canaan, shall be accounted of moral equity, 
and generally bind all offenders, and be a rule to 
all the courts in this jurisdiction in their proceeding 
against offenders, till they be branched out into 
particulars hereafter.” 

In the code of 1655 for the same colony there 
were 79 topical statues for its government. Of 
these 79, 50 percent contained references solely to 
the Old Testament, 9 per cent from the Old and 
the New and only three percent from the Christian 
gospels, demonstrating how completely Hebraized 
the Puritan mentality was. 

The powerful influences emanating from the 
tradition of the Jew did not cease with the success¬ 
ful conclusion of the period of early pioneering. 
At every critical hour the authority of his words 
and deeds was invoked; physically he may have 
been absent, spiritually, however, he played an 


The Jews in the Making of America 53 

important role and on more than one occasion 
rendered the ultimate verdict. 

In early America, we must remember, news¬ 
papers were few and far between, the communica¬ 
tion of news was slow, higher educational institu¬ 
tions were for the select few. The moulding of 
character and ideals came largely as a result of 
Biblical influences. The pulpit was practically the 
sole source of information about those things out¬ 
side routine life and the Bible was the very basis 
of the early Americans’ existence. Joshua, Samuel, 
Moses, David, Gideon,—these figures were more 
familiar to the American than the history of his 
own forebears or the mother country. It is not 
surprising therefore that in time there developed 
in the Anglo-Saxon people the same mentality 
which characterized the other race nourished on 
the Bible, extreme individualism, distrust for mun¬ 
dane authority, impatience with dynastic tyranny. 

It is only of late that historians have begun to 
recognize the source of that republican feeling 
that ended in the separation from the mother 
country. While, in the case of the few, the Eng¬ 
lishman, Locke, and perhaps some of the French 
Encyclopedists exercised a decided influence, in 
the case of the many brought up on their Bible, 
revolutionary occurrences in ancient Israel played 
a paramount role. The divine right of Kings once 


54 The Jews in the Making of America 

held omnipotent sway over Europe and hardy 
indeed were those who flung the first challenge 
at it. There would have been no response on the 
part of the masses until there had seeped into their 
mentality doubt as to its Biblical sanction. 

In colonial times it was customary before each 
election to preach in the church a sermon con¬ 
cerning the current political issues. This was 
called the election sermon. It was often printed 
and then sent broadcast. This form of propa¬ 
ganda exercised a powerful influence on the ulti¬ 
mate outcome of the conflict. It was regarded as 
the political pamphlet of the day; in the practi¬ 
cal absence of all other reading matter besides the 
Bible it served as a great instrument of political 
and intellectual education. 

Lecky, in his “Rationalism in Europe” (vol. 
II, page 168), commenting on English revolu¬ 
tionary methods, which were paralleled also in 
America, writes “It is at least an historical fact 
that in the great majority of instances the early 
Protestant defenders of civil liberty derived their 
political principles chiefly from the Old Testament 
and the defenders of despotism from the New. 
The rebellions that were so frequent in Jewish 
history formed the favorite topic of the one—the 
unreserved submission inculcated by St. Paul, of 
the other.” 


The Jews in the Making of America 55 

The Rev. Dr. Samuel Langdon in his sermon 
before the Honorable Congress of Massachusetts 
Bay, May 31, 1775, preached on the text “I will 
restore thy judges as at the first.” Among other 
things he asserted, “Let them who cry up for the 
divine right of kings consider that the only form 
of government which had a proper claim to a 
divine establishment was so far from including 
the idea of a king, that it was a high crime for 
Israel to ask to be in this respect like other na¬ 
tions; and when they were gratified, it was rather 
as a just punishment of their folly.” By a special 
vote Dr. Langdon’s sermon was ordered to be 
printed and sent to each minister in the colony and 
to each member of the Congress. 

It was from the Biblical arsenals that many of 
these revolutionists gathered the weapons which 
destroyed the tyranny of Great Britain. The 
leaders and preachers, particularly in New Eng¬ 
land, knew precisely the things that counted most 
with their hearers, and in arousing them to a sense 
of duty expressly pointed out the religious sanction 
for rebellion. Truly if God was King, what neces¬ 
sity was there for other substitute Kings; if the 
Ruler was in Heaven, why tolerate these earthly 
rulers? If all men were equal children of Yah- 
weh, and Yahweh’s power was absolute, it natur¬ 
ally followed that no man could usurp his function. 


56 The Jews in the Making of America 

Lazare, the brilliant student of Jewish psy¬ 
chology, analyzing the restlessness of the Jew and 
his critical attitude towards established authority, 
wrote in his work “Anti-Semitism”: “Holding 
Yahweh alone as their Lord, poor men were ever 
driven to revolt against human magistracy; they 
could not accept it, and during the periods of up¬ 
rising Zadok and Judah the Galilean were seen car¬ 
rying with them the zealots by their cry ‘Call none 
you master’.” When eighteen centuries after these 
there is inscribed in the first seal of the United 
States the words “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience 
to God,” we see two different races in two different 
epochs of history arrive at an identical idea by a 
logical process from the same original premise. 

These preachers absorbed the Biblical knowl¬ 
edge and nourished their rebellious spirit on 
Israel’s doctrines and history. The election ser¬ 
mon of Rev. Simeon Howard before the Council 
and House of Representatives of Massachusetts 
in 1780 was typical of the time. In this audience 
were Robert Treat Paine and Samuel Adams. 
Preaching in favor of electing rulers he asserts: 
“This is asserted by Josephus, and plainly in¬ 
timated by Moses in his recapitulatory discourse, 

. . . and, indeed, the Jews always exercised this 
right of choosing their own rulers; even Saul and 


The Jews in the Making of America 57 


David, and all their successors in the throne, were 
made kings by the voice of the people.” 

The Biblical argument was most clearly and 
lucidly stated by Thomas Paine in his “Common 
Sense.” Of this volume Dr. Rush says, “It burst 
forth from the press with an effect that has rarely 
been produced by type and paper in any age or 
country.” “Common sense” devotes its foremost 
part to the subject of Monarchy and Hereditary 
Succession, and is drawn entirely from Jewish his¬ 
tory. Monarchy is ranked in the Scriptures as one 
of the sins of the Jews for which a curse in reserve 
is pronounced against them. Paine marshalls 
all the anti-monarchical incidents for the Old Tes¬ 
tament and exclaims “Where ... is the King of 
America? I’ll tell you, friend, he reigns above.” 
Continuing the narrative he concludes with Sam¬ 
uel’s warning concerning monarchy: “These por¬ 
tions of scripture are direct and positive. They 
admit of no equivocal construction. That the 
Almighty hath here entered his protest against 
monarchical government is true, or the scripture 
is false.” 

What would be an appropriate symbol for these 
revolutionists who had absorbed the history of 
Israel and looked to the lessons of Jewish experi¬ 
ence as to the wisdom to be cherished? What could 
have a profounder effect on the people than a 


58 The Jews in the Making of America 

Jewish seal? On the same day that the Declara¬ 
tion of Independence was adopted, a Committee 
consisting of Dr. Franklin, Mr. Adams and Mr. 
Jefferson was appointed to devise a seal for the 
new country. They proposed to depict for one side 
Pharoah sitting in an open chariot, a crown on 
his head and a sword in his hand passing through 
the dividing waters of the Red Sea in pursuit of 
the Jews. Rays from a pillar of lire beam on 
Moses, who is represented as standing on a shore 
extending his hand over the sea causing it to 
overwhelm Pharoah. Beneath was the motto, 
“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” 

The revolutionary historians themselves make 
clear the profound influence exercised by the ex¬ 
perience of the Jewish people upon the American 
mind in the making. Dr. David Tappan who was 
professor of divinity at Harvard University im¬ 
mediately after the Revolutionary War and who 
had excellent opportunities to observe the impell¬ 
ing motives to Revolution, speaking about Sam¬ 
uel’s admonition against monarchy, added that 
“from this source some writers have deduced that 
monarchy is in its very nature criminal, it invades 
the prerogative of the Supreme Ruler as well as 
the equal rights of man. This inference was 
plausibly enforced on the American people . . . 


The Jews in the Making of America 59 


and this sentiment, with others equally well timed, 
operated with the swiftness and force of an elec¬ 
tric fluid in preparing the country for a formal 
separation from the British monarch.” 


CHAPTER III 


THE JEWS AND THE ECONOMIC FOUN¬ 
DATIONS OF AMERICA 

The first direct influence of Jewish men and 
money in the colonization of our country was 
made through the Dutch West India Company. 
Numbers of the refugees from Spain fled to 
Holland, which was the first European country 
to raise the standard of religious tolerance, and 
a large amount of wealth was by virtue of the 
migration diverted to the new haven of refuge. 
Sombart, in his “Jews and Modern Capitalism,” 
explains the sudden, unparalleled rise of Holland 
as a trading center in the sixteenth and seven¬ 
teenth centuries as being due to the Spanish Jewish 
influx, and whatever be the pros and cons of this 
particular question there is no doubt that the 
commercial and colonial importance of Holland 
rose with the assistance of Jews. 

The Company itself had no hesitation in assert¬ 
ing the importance of the Jewish shareholders in 
its activity. When the first shipload of Jews ar¬ 
rived in New York from Brazil, Peter Stuyvesant 
60 


The Jews in the Making of America 6i 

displayed a keen animosity toward them. He wrote 
to the Directors in Amsterdam requesting that 
“none of the Jewish nation be permitted to infest 
New Netherlands The directors replied that 
they “would have liked to agree to your wishes 
and request, . . . but ... we observe, that it 
would be unreasonable and unfair, especially be¬ 
cause of the considerable loss sustained by the 
Jews in the taking of Brasil and also because of 
the large amount of capital, which they have in¬ 
vested *in shares of this Company.” 

Confirmatory evidence of the large participa¬ 
tion of the Jews in the Dutch West India Com¬ 
pany is also found in another source. Menasseh 
ben Israel in his “Humble Address to Cromwell” 
states “that the Jews were enjoying a good part 
of the (Dutch) East and West India Company.” 
In the Board of Directors, asserts one of the first 
writers on the early settlements of the Jews in 
America, Charles Patrick Daly, there were a num¬ 
ber of these Spanish Jews. 

It was in 1654 that the Jews first came to New 
York. These Jews, twenty-three men, women and 
children, were refugees from Pernambuco, Brazil, 
which had just been captured by the Portuguese. 
They must have fled hurriedly, for they had no 
passage money, and upon their arrival here, the 
master of the boat sold all their available posses- 


62 The Jews in the Making of America 

sions. The sale, however, did not realize the full 
amount, and two Jews, David Israel and Moses 
Ambrosoes were held as security until the matter 
was straightened out. 

Stuyvesant’s hostility to the new arrivals 
aroused the Jewish members of the Directorate 
of the Company, and on the 15th of July, 1655, a 
special resolution was passed in which specific 
rights were granted to the Jews, giving them full 
economic liberty on the condition that they take 
care of their poor. The Governor, nevertheless, 
strove to hinder them by petty means and only 
later, when the Board of Directors categorically 
announced that the Jews of New Amsterdam were 
to enjoy the same liberties as the Jews of Holland, 
did this antagonism begin to weaken. 

The capture of the City by the British did not 
alter in any degree the status of the Jews. The 
erection of a synagogue was prohibited for some 
time. In 1691 we see them, in a directory of that 
year, enumerated as one of the sects of the city 
which possessed its own hall of worship. With 
characteristic industry and intelligence they be¬ 
gan to rise in the economic scale and as early as 
1700 they exercised considerable enlightening in¬ 
fluence on the political life of the colony. The 
liberal Lord Bellomont, who was Governor in 
1698, had arrayed against him the leading mer- 


The Jews in the Making of America 63 


chants, in consequence of his efforts to put down 
the piracy by which they profited. He was also 
opposed by the aristocratic party because he had 
disapproved of their course in the trial and ex¬ 
ecution of the rebellious Leisler. The aristocratic 
and mercantile class deprived Bellomont of the 
money to carry on his government, and so exten¬ 
sive and powerful was this combination that he 
writes in 1700 to the Lords of Trade, “Were it 
not for one Dutch Merchant and two or three 
Jews that have let me have the money, I should 
have been undone.” 

The Jewish Colony had in the meantime been 
reinforced by a slow and steady influx of immi¬ 
grants from the countries of Europe. The Rev. 
John Sharpe wrote in 1712, “It is possible to 
learn Hebrew here as w r ell as in Europe, there 
being a Synagogue of Jews, and many ingenious 
men of that nation from Poland, Hungary, Ger¬ 
many, etc.” These “many ingenious men” ex¬ 
tended the commerce of the city and vitalized 
its economic life. They were among the leading 
merchants of the city and by their international 
connections assisted in making the city a center 
of international trade. _ 

A certain number of Jews departed from 
New York and proceeded eastward to Rhode 
Island. As early as 1657 Jews began their pen- 


64 The Jews in the Making of America 

etration into that province, attracted by the free¬ 
dom of conscience guaranteed by its founder, 
Roger Williams. In Newport there soon rose 
a considerable community of Jews headed by 
Aaron Lopez who raised the status of the city 
to one of supreme importance. It was the one 
of three most significant commercial centres of 
the colonies, ranking with Boston and Philadel¬ 
phia. Lopez, who came about 1755, induced 
forty Jewish families to settle there and soon 
Newport began to grow by leaps and bounds. 
In fourteen years after he settled, Newport had 
150 vessels engaged in trade with the West 
Indies in addition to carrying on a whaling busi¬ 
ness. Lopez alone was the owner of thirty 
vessels engaged in European and West Indian 
trade and in the whale fisheries. He was looked 
upon as one of the most eminent and successful 
merchants in New England. His father-in-law, 
Jacob Rodriguez-Rivera, came to Newport in 
1745 and by introducing the manufacture of sper¬ 
maceti there, added to the prosperity of the town. 
So successful was their activity that at one time 
Newport possessed seventeen factories of candles 
and oil products and a probable monopoly of this 
industry until the outbreak of the Revolution. 

Immediately after the opening of the eighteenth 
century Jews began to make their appearance in 


The Jews in the Making of America 65 

Philadelphia. Jonas Aaron was the first settler. 
He established himself in 1703 and in time a com¬ 
paratively prosperous community grew up about 
him. In 1740 a cemetery known as the “Jews 
burying-ground” was secured. A congregation 
known as “Mikveh Israel” was established in 
1 745- Of the eleven original founders of the city 
of Easton, Pa., three were Jews: Myer Hart, his 
wife Rachel and his son, Michael. He is at the 
head of the list of those furnishing materials for 
the erection of Easton schoolhouse, and an idea 
of his industry may be gained from the fact that 
he and his son were the two heaviest taxed in¬ 
dividuals in the county. 

Georgia, the breeding nest of the Ku-Klux- 
Klan, was, ironically enough, placed on a per¬ 
manent basis by a number of Jews, together with 
a congregation of Moravians and a small body 
of Highlanders from Scotland. General Ogle¬ 
thorpe, a high minded man, distressed by the con¬ 
dition of individuals imprisoned for debt, decided 
to found the colony between the Altamaha and the 
Savannah river. He organized a company to sell 
stocks and began the colony with 115 people who 
had been released from jail. He distributed a 
tract of land for each one of them for a period of 
ten years. On the 7th of July, the day on which 
Oglethorpe had assembled the colonists for the 


66 The Jews in the Making of America 

purpose of allotting the land, a ship came up the 
Savannah river with forty Jewish immigrants. 
The Company officials in London, informed of 
the appearance of the Jews, came to the conclu¬ 
sion, 3,000 miles away from the scene, that the 
new immigrants would interfere with the sale of 
shares. They hoped that the public mind might 
be disabused of any intention to “make a Jews’ 
colony of Georgia.” 

Oglethorpe knew the situation much better, and 
encouraged the Jewish settlement. He realized 
the value of these new immigrants who stood out 
in marked contrast to the idle, shiftless and useless 
graduates of the English prisons. One of the 
Jewish group was Dr. Nunez, whom Oglethorpe 
specially commended for his humane efforts to 
alleviate suffering among the colonists. Another 
was Abraham De Lyon, an agriculturist who suc¬ 
cessfully introduced useful foreign plants and by 
the cultivation of the vine labored to make 
Georgia a grape growing country. The principal 
merchant of the colony also was a Jew. Later the 
Moravians and the doughty Scotch Highlanders 
arrived and Georgia began to make progress. 
The first white male child born in the colony was 
a Jew, Isaac Minis. The Jews constituted about 
one-third of the whole colony in its beginning. 
After the departure of Oglethorpe, the more big- 


The Jews in the Making of America 67 

oted of the colonists exerted their influence and a 
number of Jews began to leave. They established 
themselves in the neighboring city of Charleston. 

Here they formed themselves into a Congrega¬ 
tion in the year 1750. But the growth of the 
population made necessary a larger place of wor¬ 
ship, and in 1781 they bought a commodious brick 
structure, which was altered into a permanent 
synagogue. In 1791 their official incorporation 
as a religious society took place. The number of 
members was about 400. The Hebrew Benevo¬ 
lent Society, organized in Charleston in 1750, is 
in existence to this very day. The Jew, here as 
elsewhere, vitalized the economic life of the place 
by the introduction of new ideas. Moses Lindo, 
for instance, who arrived from London in 1756, 
became engaged in indigo manufacture which he 
made one of the principal industries of the colony. 

It is Virginia that has the earliest record of 
Jewish participation in the upbuilding of the 
United States. “A Muster of the Inhabitants of 
Virginia” in 1633 contains the names of Elias 
Legardo, Joseph Moise, and Rebecca Isaacke. 
Seignor Moses Nehemiah is mentioned as a liti¬ 
gant in the year 1658 in the legal annals of the 
colony. His litigation sheds a peculiar light on 
conditions in early Virginia. Tobacco, then, was 
a legal tender and was preferred to anything else. 


68 The Jews in the Making of America 

In order to compel a creditor to receive payment 
in coin instead of tobacco, Nehemiah had to have 
recourse to judicial procedure. 

The New York State archives contain an origi¬ 
nal bill of lading and an invoice of goods shipped 
from Curacao to New Netherland in 1658 di¬ 
rected to Joshua Mordecai En-Reques. In this 
document there is enumerated the following list 
of articles which the above mentioned Jew was 
importing for the inhabitants of the colony: 
Venetian pearls, pendants, thimbles, scissors, 
knives and bells. Four years after their admission 
to the colony they were carrying on commerce 
with Venice, perhaps the chief Mediterranean 
seaport of the time. Tobacco was soon imported 
by a Jewish merchant. There are numberless 
references to the commerce carried on by the Jews 
of New York, often with their own vessels. These 
New York Jews traded with Jamaica, Barbados, 
St. Thomas, Canada, Bermuda, Lisbon, Madeira 
and Liverpool, in all of which places the foreign 
commerce was in Jewish hands. Trade with India 
was opened up by a Jew from New York who had 
previously lived in Calcutta, while another Jewish 
trader sent ships to Malabar and China. The 
commerce of Newport has already been alluded 
to, and it may be mentioned in passing that these 
Newport Jews also had formed an intercolonial 


The Jews in the Making of America 69 

oil company, antedating the Standard Oil by about 
150 years. 

This commercial importance of the Jew in the 
colonies was not mere accident. Writing in 1712, 
in “The Spectator” the essayist Addison who 
held office in England declared that “they [the 
Jews] are, indeed, so disseminated through all the 
trading parts of the world, that they are become 
the instruments by which the most distant na¬ 
tions converse with one another, and by which 
mankind are knit together in a general correspon¬ 
dence ; they are like the pegs and nails in a great 
building, which, though they are but little valued 
in themselves, are absolutely necessary to keep the 
whole frame together.” 

The Jews throughout Europe and America oc¬ 
cupied then, and to a certain extent, still occupy 
a peculiar position. International commerce was 
then in its infancy. Differences in language and 
customs, national jealousy and suspicious distrust 
of foreigners, ignorance of the technique of trad¬ 
ing, conditions of chronic warfare, all militated 
against extensive international commerce. The 
means of communication were slow and confidence 
in people thousands of miles distant was rare. But 
here were the Jews, united by language, customs, 
and morals, spread throughout all the great com¬ 
mercial centers and in addition endowed with a 


70 The Jews in the Making of America 

great capacity for trading. The Jew in New 
York had relatives in Amsterdam, Brazil and 
London. The Jew of Newport was acquainted 
with the Jews of Barbados, Constantinople or 
Italy. Most of these Jews were of Spanish origin 
or descent, and members of the same family found 
themselves after the expulsion in all parts of the 
world. It was this peculiar situation which was 
of great commercial importance and redounded 
ultimately to the great benefit of the American 
colonies. Because of this, the Jew rendered a 
unique and unparalleled service to the upbuilding 
of the colonies. 

England forced her colonies to purchase in the 
mother country all the manufactured articles 
which they needed. Edward Eggleston, a lead¬ 
ing historian of American colonial commerce, has 
well pointed out that the balance of trade with 
England went heavily against the colonies. Brit¬ 
ish merchants refused colonial currency and this 
heavy balance had to be paid in coin. This defi¬ 
ciency was supplied by means of the trade with the 
West Indian islands and the African colonies. In 
all these West Indian trading centers the Jews 
played the first role. A stream of precious metals 
came into the country offsetting the handicap 
under which the colonies were laboring. Com¬ 
munications between both sections of the Western 


The Jews in the Making of America 71 


hemisphere had been initiated by Jews and they 
were among the most important of the commercial 
groups, which were active. This wealth revitalized 
the economic system, the basis of the colonies’ 
existence, and saved it from inevitable stagnation 
and decay. 

The sugar trade alsb was of great importance 
to the colonies. Aside from precious metals, it 
was the chief article of trade between both por¬ 
tions of the New World. There is ground for 
believing that sugar culture was transplanted from 
Madeira to Brazil and the New World by a Span¬ 
ish Jew. At one time the whole sugar industry 
in the West Indies and Brazil was a Jewish mo¬ 
nopoly. It was an industry of supreme import¬ 
ance in that day, as Brooks Adams has pointed 
out in his volume on America’s commercial su¬ 
premacy. It brought vast wealth to England and 
the colonies and to other countries, also. The 
writer, Nieuhoff, who was in Brazil before 1650, 
wrote that “They [the Jews] had a vast traffic, 
beyond all the rest, they purchased sugar mills, 
and built stately houses in the Receif. They were 
all traders.” The Council of Trade in Paris 
(1701) declared “that French shipping owes its 
splendor to the commerce of the sugar producing 
islands.” 

It was this commercial link between the Jews 


72 The Jews in the Making of America 


of the colonies and the Jews of the West Indies 
and Brazil that stabilized the economic order of 
the colonies and gave it the basis for its economic 
future. It compensated for the burden that the 
mother country placed upon America and without 
the beneficial effects flowing from this Jewish 
trade the growth of the colonies would have been 
difficult and slow. 


CHAPTER IV 


THE JEWS AND THE REVOLUTIONARY 
WAR 

When the conflict between the colonies and the 
mother country grew keen, the overwhelming 
majority of the Jews were arrayed on the patriot 
side. From the very inception of the protest 
against the meddlesome habits of Parliament they 
stood solidly behind the revolutionaries. On the 
Non-Importation Resolutions of 1765 we find the 
names of leading Jewish merchants, Benjamin 
Levy, Sampson Levy, Joseph Jacobs, Hayman 
Levy, Jr., David Franks, Matthias Bush, Michael 
Gratz, Bernard Gratz and Moses Mordecai. 
Their patriotism conquered the feeling of attach¬ 
ment which they bore for their mother community 
across the seas, for in the same way that the 
American colonies were largely the children of 
England, so was the Jewish community the de¬ 
pendent child of English Jewry. 

Their services covered a number of fields. They 
furnished soldiers and officers for the army. They 
financed the Continental Congress and the political 
73 


74 The Jews in the Making of America 

leaders of the day in the period prior to the out¬ 
break of hostilities. They boycotted English 
goods. Coming from the more educated and 
wealthier classes they were able to furnish a num¬ 
ber of officers to the Continental service. 
Four Jews were Lieutenant Colonels, three were 
Majors and there were at least six captains. 
There were a few outstanding figures among these 
Jewish Revolutionary soldiers, men who received 
for the most part the recognition which they ade¬ 
quately deserved. 

Major Benjamin Nones could well be called 
the Jewish Lafayette. He left France in 1777, 
and came to Philadelphia where he immediately 
enlisted in the patriotic cause. He started as a 
volunteer private and rose to the rank of Major. 
He was on the staffs of both Lafayette and Wash¬ 
ington. Later, at the head of a group of four 
hundred men he was attached to the command of 
Baron de Kalb which contained a number of 
Jews. When de Kalb fell, three Jews carried him 
from the field, Major Nones, Captain Jacob de la 
Motta and Captain Jacob de Leon. 

The Pinto family of Connecticut had three and 
probably four brothers who took an active part 
in the Revolution. Abraham Pinto was a private 
in Company Y Seventh Regiment of Connecticut. 
Solomon served as an officer and was wounded in 


The Jews in the Making of America 75 

the British attack on New Haven. William Pinto 
appears on the revolutionary records as a volun¬ 
teer both in 1779 and in 1781. The relationship 
of the last to the others has, however, not been 
determined. 

The South, which contained a larger proportion 
of Jews than it does at present, yielded also its 
quota of virile Jewish rebels against King 
George’s yoke. In Charleston, South Carolina, a 
corps of volunteer infantry composed largely of 
Jews took the field. These soldiers were under 
the command of Captain Lushington and later 
saw service under General Moultrie at Beaufort. 
The outstanding figure among Jewish revolu¬ 
tionary heroes was Mordecai Sheftal, one of the 
first white children born in Georgia. At the out¬ 
break of hostilities he organized the Rebel 
Parochial Committee. In his capacity of Chair¬ 
man of that body he regulated the internal affairs 
of Savannah. During the month of July, 1777, he 
was appointed Commissary General to the troops 
of the colony. When the British took Savannah 
they took him prisoner. He was placed on board 
one of the horrible prison ships, where more than 
one patriot found his death. In 1780 he was 
placed near the head of the list of those anathe¬ 
matized by the British authorities in their Dis¬ 
qualifying Act. In 1782 he appeared in Phila- 


76 The Jews in the Making of America 

delphia. The following year he received a grant 
of land in recognition of his services during the 
war. After the war he was active in several 
spheres. His name figures prominently in the 
early history of Freemasonry in the United 
States. The Union Society of Savannah (organ¬ 
ized in 1786), still one of Savannah’s representa¬ 
tive organizations, has the honor of having in him 
one of its original founders. 

Two members of one family rose to consider¬ 
able rank. Isaac Franks, one of them, enlisted at 
the age of seventeen. This youngster was cap¬ 
tured but made a daring escape after being im¬ 
prisoned for three months. At the age of nine¬ 
teen, he was made a foragemaster and three years 
later he was appointed to the position of ensign 
in the 7th Massachusetts Infantry. He was a 
friend of George Washington and the latter 
stayed at his house in Germantown during the 
prevalence of yellow fever in that vicinity in 
1793. His portrait, painted by his friend Gilbert 
Stuart, is in the Gibson Collection of the Pennsyl¬ 
vania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. 

Major David Franks, who resided in Montreal, 
was the second member of the family who achieved 
distinction. He was arrested in 1775 for speaking 
disrespectfully of the King. His name appears 
on the list of twenty nine prisoners sent to the 


The Jews in the Making of America 77 

British ministry, “being the principal persons 
settled in the province who very zealously served 
the rebels in the winter of 1775-1776 and fled 
upon their leaving it.” Due to the fact that he was 
an aide-de-camp to Benedict Arnold, some sought 
to implicate him in the latter’s act of treachery, 
but he was completely exonerated and promoted 
in the public service. In 1781 he was sent by 
Robert Morris as a bearer of dispatches to Jay 
in Madrid and Franklin in Paris. He served the 
United States on a number of occasions in the 
capacity of confidential diplomatic agent. 

There were a number of other Jewish officers 
and men who participated in the Revolution and 
displayed on the battlefield the same energy and 
enthusiasm which they manifested in the economic 
upbuilding of the country. Particularly did their 
aid prove of enormous value in supplying the 
sinews of war. There were a number of Jews 
who gave freely to the country in the form of 
voluntary contributions and loans. Among these 
was a Polish immigrant Jew who never received 
one penny in compensation for the fortune he 
generously placed at the disposal of the republic. 

Haym Salomon, born in Lissa, Poland, in 1740, 
had migrated to America four years before the 
outbreak of the Revolution. He spoke a number 
of languages, among them German, French and 


78 The Jews in the Making of America 

Italian, besides Russian and Polish. He was 
arrested by the British officials in 1776 on the 
charge of espionage, but managed to escape pun¬ 
ishment. Indeed, on account of his linguistic 
accomplishment he was placed in the British 
Commissariat. This position he used to effect 
the escape of a number of prisoners. Later he 
himself escaped to Philadelphia and associated 
himself with Robert Morris, the Superintendent 
of Finance for the colonies. 

According to the documents afterward sub¬ 
mitted to Congress he advanced to the govern¬ 
ment $658,007.13, an enormous sum of money at 
that time when we consider the general prostra¬ 
tion of commerce and business. He not only aided 
the government as such, but he also financed those 
outstanding men without whom the founding of 
the republic would have been difficult. It was 
Salomon who released men like Jefferson, Madi¬ 
son, Lee, Steuben, Monroe, and Mercer from the 
worries of procuring a livelihood so that they 
might devote all their time to their public activity. 
Robert Morris writing in 1783 said that many of 
the leaders would have gone to jail for debt had 
they not received financial assistance from private 
sources. In a letter written to the Virginia 
authorities Madison declared, “I have for some 
time been a pensioner in the favor of Haym Salo- 


The Jews in the Making of America 79 

mon, a Jew Broker.”. . . And again, “The kind¬ 
ness of our little friend in Front street [Haym 
Salomon] ... is a fund that will preserve me 
from extremities, but I never resort to it without 
great mortification, as he obstinately rejects all 
recompense.” Henry Wheaton, voiced the 
opinion that James Wilson, another of the dele¬ 
gates of the Continental Congress and other men 
instrumental in the founding of the republic, would 
have been forced to retire from public service, 
without Salomon’s aid “administered with equal 
generosity and delicacy.” 

Salomon himself did not stand idly by at this 
critical time in the foundation of the republic. 
Not only his purse but also his financial acumen 
was placed at the disposal of the country. It 
was due to his ability that the negotiations for war 
subsidies from France and Holland were success¬ 
fully completed. The French government ap¬ 
pointed him treasurer of the French army which 
came to help the colonies. This position he filled 
without compensation. For several years he aided 
Don Francisco Renton, the secret Ambassador of 
Charles III of Spain, and won the secret support 
of that monarch for the cause of the American 
Revolution. He was the financial link between the 
United States and France; he was the broker to 
the French consul and later fiscal agent to the 


80 The Jews in the Making of America 

French Minister to the United States, Chevalier 
de la Luzerne. He was the chief depositor of the 
Bank of North America. Robert Morris kept a 
record of no less than seventy-five separate finan¬ 
cial transactions engaged in by Salomon which 
enabled the credit of the government to be main¬ 
tained. Up to the present time, however, the 
heirs of Salomon have never received one penny 
in compensation. 

There are others also that might be mentioned 
in this record of Jewish sacrifices for the freedom 
of the republic. Benjamin Levy and Benjamin 
Jacobs are found among those who signed the 
bills of credit for the Continental Congress. 
Isaac Moses of Philadelphia donated out of his 
private purse $15,000 towards the colonial treas¬ 
ury. Herman Levy of Philadelphia was another 
contributor, while Manuel Mordecai Noah, gave 
$100,000, in addition to serving as an assistant 
to Washington. 

The War of 1812 

In the war of 1812 a number of Jewish officers 
did valiant service. Pre-eminent among them was 
Colonel Mordecai Mayers of Rhode Island, 
whose heroic deeds, particularly at Sacketts Har¬ 
bor, are vividly described in Lossing’s “Field 
Book of the War of 1812.” Later he became 


The Jews in the Making of America 8i 

Mayor of Schenectady, and his prominence in 
political affairs is attested by his correspondence 
with men like Martin Van Buren and Horatio 
Seymour. Bernard Harte, the grandfather of 
Bret Harte who became one of America’s great 
writers, was a Divisional Quartermaster. Haym 
M. Salomon, the son of Haym Salomon, of revolu¬ 
tionary fame, was captain in the First Brigade 
Infantry. 

In the naval service, Captain John Ordroneaux 
of New York, born in Nantes, France, in 1778, 
distinguished himself. So important was his work 
that the American naval historian, Edgar Stanton 
Maclay, devotes to his achievements an entire 
chapter of his work on American privateers dur¬ 
ing the War of 1812. His career was a series of 
uninterrupted successes. In command of a priva¬ 
teer, he scoured the seas for British merchant 
vessels. During the month of March, 1814 he 
captured nine valuable prizes. While in command 
of the “Prince de Neufchatel” he was pursued 
by seventeen British men-of-war and succeeded in 
eluding them all. His crowning success came in 
October, 1814 when he captured the British 
frigate “Endymion.” 

The struggle between Ordroneaux’s ship and 
the British frigate was one of the most gruelling 
of the war and is vividly described by Maclay in 


82 The Jews in the Making of America 

his “History of American Privateers”: “Captain 
Ordroneaux himself fired some eighty shots at the 
enemy. Springing up the sides of the vessel, the 
British would endeavor to gain her deck but 
every attempt was met by deadly blows by the 
sturdy defenders. It was well understood that 
Captain Ordroneaux had avowed his determina¬ 
tion never to be taken alive and that he would 
blow up the ship with all his hands before striking 
his colors. At one period of the fight, when the 
British had gained the deck and were gradually 
driving the Americans back, Ordroneaux seized a 
lighted match, ran to the companionway directly 
over the magazine, called out to his men that he 
would blow the ship up if they retreated further. 
The threat had the desired effect; such a san¬ 
guinary fight could not be of long duration and at 
the end of twenty minutes, the English cried 
for quarter, upon which the Americans ceased 
fighting.” 

Ordroneaux ended his heroic career in South 
America where he died in 1841. 

Among the defenders of New Orleans was 
Judah Touro, a well known philanthropist who 
volunteered his services at the approach of the 
British. He served in a common capacity, and 
while engaged in the carrying of munition was 


The Jews in the Making of America 83 

struck by a British shell. He survived, however, 
and the remainder of his life was devoted to deeds 
which make him one of the outstanding figures in 
the early history of American Jewry. 


CHAPTER V 

THE JEWS AND THE CIVIL WAR 

It was nothing new in history for Jew to 
shoulder arms against Jew in the cause of an 
adopted fatherland. The Mason and Dixon line 
severed Jews from Jews as sharply as it alienated 
Southern from Northern Christians. Yet the gulf 
between the Jew of the North and the Jew of the 
South was not solely imposed by geography. 
There was a difference in origin, experience, cul¬ 
ture, tradition, acquired mental attitudes and 
standards. 

The Southern Jews, of the Sephardic type, 
remnants of the early Portuguese and Spanish 
settlements, had inhabited for two centuries the 
Southern states, and were rooted firmly in the 
soil and imbued with the spirit surrounding them. 
For the most part they had acquired wealth and 
owned numerous slaves whom they exploited for 
the development of their resources. Their pros¬ 
perity and long tenancy had won them prestige 
equal to that of the non-Jewish natives, and they 
were not only completely at home amid their sur- 
84 


The Jews in the Making of America 85 

roundings, but, naturally, supported and sanc¬ 
tioned the institutions that had been so propitious 
to them, providing them with wealth, position and 
comfort. Like other wealthy Southern land and 
slave owners they were convinced that their finan¬ 
cial stability depended upon maintaining the ser¬ 
vices of the negro slaves. It is, therefore, hardly 
surprising that they became staunch upholders of 
the slavery system, in their unwillingness to relin¬ 
quish these personal benefits. 

There are, however, reports showing instances 
of Jews displaying unusual sympathy and tender¬ 
ness towards their slaves. No doubt the memory 
of their own long years of oppression and the codes 
of mercy and humanity which are parts of Jewish 
religious practice rendered them more thoughtful 
and gentle in their attitude to the negro than 
would otherwise be expected. 

The story of Judah Touro exemplifies the 
philanthropy and humaneness of Jews of this 
type. It is said “that the negroes who waited upon 
him in the house of the Shepards with whom he 
had lived for forty years were all emancipated by 
his aid and supplied with the means of establishing 
themselves, and the only slave he personally pos¬ 
sessed he trained to business, then emancipated, 
furnishing him with money and valuable advice.” 
Additional evidence of this spirit is seen in the 


86 The Jews in the Making of America 

reports of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery 
States, made several years before the Civil War, 
which refer to some Jews “who have refused to 
have any right of property in man or even to have 
any slaves about them.” 

The type of Jew found in the North at this 
period was ideally susceptible to the cause of 
slavery’s abolition. For the most part they repre¬ 
sented recent arrivals coming fresh from the Ger¬ 
man Revolution. For years they had devoted 
themselves to revolutionary enterprises in their 
native countries of Germany and Austro-Hungary, 
struggling to terminate their oppression and to 
win freedom. When in 1848 the reactionary 
monarchical faction supressed the rebellion these 
Jews fled with the hope of finding an ideal state of 
liberty on this side of the Atlantic, where they 
dreamed that no degree of oppression would be 
harbored. The struggle against slavery which 
they found raging here appealed to them as a 
remnant of the very problems that had confronted 
them in the homeland, and their sympathies were 
readily enlisted, to assert for another people this 
freedom which had been denied to them. Thus, 
the Jews of the North were psychologically well 
suited to ally themselves with the Union and they 
proved to be ardent in their struggle for what 
they felt to be the cause of Justice. 


The Jews in the Making of America 87 

Nevertheless, just as in the South there are 
instances of Jews opposing slavery, so do we find 
Jews who abandoned personal advantages in 
championing the continuation of slavery. David 
Yulee (born Levy) had by successive steps risen 
to political position and enjoyed the distinction of 
being the first Jew elected to the U. S. Senate. 
He served two terms, but in January, 1861 he 
interrupted his office by retiring and joining the 
Confederacy. Another Jew, Judge Samuel Hey- 
denfeldt, of California, gave up a profitable prac¬ 
tice before the Courts because his position as a 
lawyer automatically bound him to the Union and 
his sympathies were with the Confederacy. 

The Jewish pulpit figured prominently on the 
slavery question. Such men as Rabbi David Ein- 
horn, who was compelled to forfeit his ministry 
in Baltimore, Sabato Morais of Philadelphia and 
Rabbis Bernhard Felsenthal and Liebman Adler 
of Chicago, are worthy of mention in connection 
with their firm, sincere expressions and earnest 
work in behalf of the negroes. But Rabbi Morris 
J. Raphall of New York, by quoting the Bible in 
defense of slavery, brought storm clouds upon 
himself. Taking the Bible as the last word on 
ethical or moral propriety, he adjudged the Bible’s 
sanction of slavery irrefutable and all endeavors 
to abolish slavery as setting up a “Higher Law,” 


88 The Jews in the Making of America 

and consequently sacrilegious. His pamphlet en¬ 
titled “Bible View on Slavery” created a furore 
and unloosed an avalanche of replies and refuta¬ 
tions. The most conspicuous communication came 
from Michael Heilprin and was published in the 
New York Tribune . This work was held the 
most brilliant exposition on abolition ever pro¬ 
duced by a Jewish anti-slavery champion. So 
clear and logical, so well-presented was Heilprin’s 
case that he converted numerous readers to the 
cause he advocated. Moreover, he succeeded in 
dispelling any illusion, which might have been 
created by Rabbi Raphall’s attack, that Jews were 
on the whole pro-slavery in their convictions. 
Michael Heilprin, who came to this country from 
Hungary in 1856, represented the new type of 
Germanic immigrant. In Hungary he had won 
distinction as publisher, poet and teacher, lending 
his writings and teachings to the cause of Hun¬ 
gary’s freedom which he had very much at heart. 
The defeat of his hopes in 1848 induced his re¬ 
moval to this country and with this came the trans¬ 
fer of his fund of scholarship and zeal from the 
old country to the new. 

The Jews, whom Heilprin typified, many of 
them participants in the German Revolution of 
1848, became staunch Unionists and aided ma¬ 
terially in the organization of the new Republican 


The Jews in the Making of America 89 

party. The National Convention of the party in 
i860, which nominated Abraham Lincoln as 
President, had two German-Jewish members — 
Moritz Pinner and Lewis Naphtali Dembitz. 
This same year New York State had a Jewish 
Presidential Elector—Sigismund Kaufman. The 
succeeding election, which renominated Lincoln, 
was also well represented by Jews. Maier Hirsh, 
born in Germany, attended the Republican Na¬ 
tional Convention of 1864 as delegate from the 
State of Oregon, and A. J. Dittenhoefer, born in 
South Carolina but residing in New York, served 
as Elector. 

There have come down in history many stories 
relating to Lincoln and the love shown him by 
various individuals or groups of citizens. The 
Jews, too, have their little share in this Lincoln 
lore. One, at least, may be cited as demonstrating 
the cordial feeling existing for Lincoln personally. 
A Jew, City Clerk Abraham Kohn of Chicago, 
sent to President-elect Lincoln on his way to 
Washington in 1861, a silk flag, painted in colors. 
On its folds were lettered in black Hebrew char¬ 
acters the third to ninth verses of the first chapter 
of Joshua, ending: “Have I not commanded thee ? 
Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, 
neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God 
is with thee whithersoever thou goest.” 


90 The Jews in the Making of America 

A dominating figure throughout the period of 
the War was a Jew, Judah P. Benjamin, termed 
by historians and biographers, “The brains of the 
Confederacy.” He was born in St. Thomas, 
West Indies, but while quite young moved to the 
United States, settling eventually in New Orleans, 
where his family resided for many years. He 
studied law at Yale, but did not complete his 
courses. Instead he served as notary’s clerk in 
New Orleans until he was able to qualify for ad¬ 
mittance to the bar. Even in his earliest legal 
activities, he proved to be a clever logician and 
brilliant orator. He held a number of political 
offices as one of the Whig party. In 1852 he be¬ 
came State Senator and in 1853 he was elected a 
member of the U. S. Senate as a Whig. About 
this time the Whig party began to go to pieces, 
due to a split between the northern and southern 
units on the question of secession. Denouncing the 
party in this feeble state, he urged that its diverg¬ 
ing elements be moulded into one strong Southern 
party, upholding slavery and the right of states 
to secede from the Union. When he failed to 
gain his point, he withdrew from the Whig party 
and transferred his allegiance to the Democratic 
administration. As early as 1856 he eloquently 
advocated secession in addressing the Senate on 
the Kansas Bill, nor did he desist during the sub- 


The Jews in the Making of America 91 

sequent term of office to which he was re-elected. 
In January, 1861 Louisiana seceded, Bdnjamin’s 
term in the Senate automatically expiring. The 
new confederacy had formed with Jefferson Davis 
at the head, and the President named Benjamin 
his Attorney-General. His official duties in this 
capacity were negligible, as no court had been 
formed, but he displayed such helpfulness, tact and 
shrewdness that in successive steps he became, 
first, Secretary of War and, next, Secretary of 
State. His position as Secretary of War subjected 
him to continual abuse, as he was personally 
blamed by army officials for all paucity of equip¬ 
ment or losses due to improper provision by the 
War Department. He assumed the burden of the 
censure, rather than reveal the deplorable truth 
that the department was impoverished of neces¬ 
sities, due to lack of funds in the Confederate 
Treasury. President Davis did not fail to appre¬ 
ciate this diplomatic behavior and largeness of 
spirit. Benjamin’s appointment as Secretary of 
State was his reward for faithful devotion to the 
Confederacy and its head, his utter dependability, 
his calmness and assurance in adversity and stead¬ 
fastness in carrying out his duties, despite the dis¬ 
heartening recriminations of his fellow-citizens. 

His chief problem was to win the aid of foreign 
maritime powers, in order to remove the blockade 


92 The Jews in the Making of America 

which would enable the Confederacy to ship cot¬ 
ton, the principal marketable product of the 
South; but he, as well as other emissaries failed 
in this undertaking. While Spain and England 
remained obdurate in their opposition to slavery 
and support of the North, he did come close to 
winning France, mainly by personally interviewing 
Mercier, the French minister. However no tangi¬ 
ble benefits materialized and all hope of recogni¬ 
tion by a foreign power was shattered. Benjamin 
bravely withstood the military losses preceding 
and predicating the final downfall, but with the fall 
of Richmond, he made his escape to the West 
Indies, from where he worked his way amid hard¬ 
ships and dangers to England. Here he was cor¬ 
dially received by British diplomats, making 
friends with men like Disraeli and Gladstone. 
Despite his advanced years, he prepared for the 
British bar, was admitted and ultimately appointed 
one of the Queen’s Counsel. His Treatise on the 
Law of Sale of Personal Property became cele¬ 
brated in the legal world and accepted as the last 
word, on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1872 he 
won a patent of procedure placing him in rank 
above all future Queen’s Counsels. His death in 
1884 brought his brilliant career to an end. 

The Jewish population at the outbreak of the 


The Jews in the Making of America 93 


War is conservatively estimated at 150,000. A 
figure as high as 400,000 has been ventured by 
some authorities, but this has been rejected as 
excessive. Statistics and documents are insufficient 
to throw light on this point. It is unsafe to base 
calculations on published lists of names available, 
inasmuch as it is true that typically Jewish names 
such as Isaacs, Jacobs, Abrams, etc., etc., were 
common among Christians, and Anglicized or 
American names were adopted by Jews, making 
their Jewish identification by name impossible. 

To gauge the number of Jews who participated 
in the War is similarly difficult. Recruits were 
not required to report their religions or origins 
on official army records, nor were the young 
Jewish American or German born soldiers suffi¬ 
ciently religious to make their faith noticeable. 
However, consensus of opinion, confirmed by in¬ 
vestigation, indicates that about 10,000 Jewish 
soldiers enrolled. Mr. Seddon, the Confederate 
Secretary of War, when requested to release 
Jewish soldiers for the Rosh Hashanah and Yom 
Kippur holidays, expressed the belief that there 
were from ten to twelve thousand Jews in the Con¬ 
federate Army and that granting such a request 
would utterly disrupt certain commands. Mr. 
Simon Wolf, who has compiled invaluable ma¬ 
terial on this subject, draws the conclusion that 


94 The Jews in the Making of America 

“the enlistment of Jewish soldiers, North and 
South, reached proportions considerably in excess 
of their ratio to the general population.” 

The State Historical Society of Alabama has 
initiated the work of compiling and publishing 
the names of all the Jewish soldiers participating 
in the War. Their latest report shows that sev¬ 
eral thousand names have already been gathered. 
The estimate of this Society agrees with that of 
Simon Wolf in that 10,000 Jews are accredited to 
the army, 6,000 to the North and 4,000 to the 
South. Of these 10,000 there is a record of nine 
generals, eighteen colonels, forty majors, 200 
captains, twenty-five surgeons and last, but by no 
means least, one Chaplain. Whatever obstacles 
set by religion or prejudice had to be overcome by 
the various officers in rising to their respective 
ranks may be classed with the usual type of diffi¬ 
culty confronting Jews in any promotion. But the 
gaining of a Chaplain in the army marks a victory 
for which many had to combat. The office of 
Chaplain by the army’s definition, was restricted 
only to ministers embracing the Christian faith. 
Applications to appoint a Jewish Chaplain could 
not be considered, and it was only after heated 
protests and special appeals by prominent Jews 
that the concession was gained, and a Jew—Rabbi 


The Jews in the Making of America 95 

Jacob Frankel—was appointed as a hospital chap¬ 
lain. 

The Confederate army, it is natural to conclude, 
had a larger number of Jewish officers than the 
Union army, mainly because the Jews of the 
South were for the most part natives, whereas the 
Jews of the North were comparative newcomers, 
and obviously, the natives had a greater chance 
for advancement than recent arrivals in the 
country. 

A feature that was decidedly characteristic of 
the Confederate arrijy was the presence of 
“brothers-in-arms,” as they were termed by Simon 
Wolf. That is to say, a family of brothers in a 
given community would group together with their 
neighbors and enlist in the same company to de¬ 
fend their state or part of the country. The 
brothers-in-arms whose names have been recorded 
are six Cohen brothers from North Carolina, five 
Moses brothers from South Carolina, three Cohen 
brothers from Arkansas, three Levy brothers 
from Virginia, three Moses brothers from Ala¬ 
bama, three Levy brothers from Louisiana, three 
Goldsmith brothers—two from Georgia and one 
from South Carolina. The Jonas family con¬ 
tributed four brothers to the Confederate army 
from Louisiana, but the father, Abraham Jonas, 
and one son served in the Union ranks. Abraham 


96 The Jews in the Making of America 

Jonas was a close friend of Lincoln. His residence 
in Illinois and appointment to the Illinois legisla¬ 
ture in 1849 brought him into prominence and 
acquainted him with Lincoln. In 1856 he came in 
closer contact with Lincoln when they were both 
appointed Presidential electors from the state of 
Illinois Republican Convention on the Fremont 
ticket. Lincoln at one time, after his election as 
President, was attacked as being affiliated with 
the “Know Nothing” party. Nicolay and Hay in 
their biography of Lincoln quote a letter written 
to Jonas by the President, which conclusively 
establishes Lincoln’s innocence of the malignant 
accusation. This friendship between the Presi¬ 
dent and Jonas has a touching ending. On his 
death-bed Jonas, wishing to see his son, Charles 
H., who was a war prisoner, taken from a Con¬ 
federate Regiment, conveyed his desire to Lincoln. 
Lincoln’s prompt order, “Allow Charles H. 
Jonas, now a prisoner of war at Johnson’s Island, 
a parole of three weeks to visit his dying father, 
Abraham Jonas, at Quincy, Ill.,” effected this re¬ 
union. 

Another of these Jonas brothers, Benjamin F. 
Jonas, also a Confederate soldier, served in the 
U. S. Senate from 1879 to 1885. 

In the Confederacy, Alabama contributed the 
greatest number of Jews to the army—about 150. 


The Jews in the Making of America 97 

Georgia came second, with 140 Jews, and in addi¬ 
tion, a special distinction was accorded the Jews 
by the appointment of Octavus Cohen as quarter¬ 
master of the Georgian troops. Isidore Straus, 
the renowned Jew and Titanic victim, enlisted 
from Georgia; he helped organize a regiment, of 
which he was elected lieutenant. This commis¬ 
sion was recalled, however, because of his youth. In 
1863 he was sent to England by the Confederacy 
to secure ships for blockade service. Virginia held 
her own with 113 Jews, and in this state, too, a 
Jew deserves special mention—Adolphus Meyer, 
who enlisted with the first company mustered into 
service. He was active during the entire war, and 
held the position of Assistant Adjutant General. 
Years later, in 1891, he was elected to the House 
of Representatives and served nine terms, until 
his death in 1908. In the Jewish cemetery at 
Richmond, Va., lie buried seventeen soldiers, of 
whom one was a captain, three lieutenants and 
one a corporal. 

Ben Oppenheimer, from Montgomery, was the 
only deaf-mute who ever enlisted in the army. 

Colonel Raphael J. Moses, of Georgia, served 
on the staff of General Longstreet and was ap¬ 
pointed Chief Commissary of the State. Surgeon- 
General David deLeon who had participated in 
the Mexican War, and Assistant Adjutant Gen- 


98 The Jews in the Making of America 

eral J. Randolph Mordecai served gallantly In the 
Civil War. Mississippi’s annals are honored by 
the name of Samuel Ullman, of the 16th Infantry 
Regiment, who continued throughout the War, 
though wounded twice. In 1891 he became Rabbi 
of the Emanuel Congregation at Birmingham, 
Alabama. 

Turning to the Union Army, we find men like 
Frederick Knefler, born in Hungary, appointed 
colonel of the 79th Indiana Regiment and later 
made Brevet-Brigadier-General in recognition of 
his gallant deeds; Edward S. Solomon, or Salo¬ 
mon, born in Schleswig-Holstein, who came to this 
country in early manhood, settled in Chicago, 
served there as Alderman in i860 and at the out¬ 
break of the War was commissioned second- 
lieutenant in the 24th Illinois Regiments. Within 
two years he was promoted to the rank of major, 
then, lieutenant-colonel and later, colonel of the 
82nd Infantry, which he assisted in organizing. 
With General Howe he witnessed the battles of 
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chattanooga, Look¬ 
out Mountain and Missionary Ridge. His final 
rank was Brevet-Brigadier-General. Returning 
to civil life after the War he was appointed clerk 
of County Cook, Ill., and in 1870 Governor of 
Washington Territory. Resigning from this po¬ 
sition in 1874, he moved to San Francisco, in 


The Jews in the Making of America 99 

which city he was elected into the California 
Legislature and became District Attorney of San 
Francisco. 

One of the most romantic histories is that of 
Leopold Blumenberg. He had been in the United 
States only about seven years when the War 
broke out, and he immediately abandoned a lucra¬ 
tive business in which he was engaged in Balti¬ 
more. He assisted in organizing the Fifth Mary¬ 
land Regiment, of which he was made major. 
Goading the nearby secessionists by his pro-union 
activities, he barely escaped one night being 
hanged; his house was guarded and barricaded 
for several nights. He served near Hampton 
Roads as head of his Regiment; at Antietam he 
suffered severe wounds. President Lincoln ap¬ 
pointed him Provost-Marshal of the Third Mary¬ 
land District. Later, during Johnson’s adminis¬ 
tration, he was appointed to a position in the 
Baltimore custom house. 

Philip J. Joachimsen won renown both in a legal 
and military capacity. For a time he served as 
Substitute U. S. Attorney by special provision of 
an act of Congress. During the war he helped 
organize the 59th Volunteer Regiment of New 
York and was brevetted Brigadier-General, after 
having been injured while with his Regiment in 
New Orleans. 


ioo The Jews in the Making of America 


General Wm. Mayer was the proud possessor 
of a letter of thanks from President Lincoln for 
assistance given during the Draft Riots in New 
York. 

Marcus M. Spiegel, who enlisted in the 67th 
Ohio Infantry and who for his brave fighting was 
successively promoted up to the rank of Lieuten¬ 
ant-Colonel, met his death in service, just after 
his officers had recommended him for promotion 
to the Brigadier-Generalship. 

Max Einstein organized the 27th Pennsylvania 
Infantry Regiment, which commenced activities in 
May, 1861. Under Colonel Einstein’s leadership, 
the unfortunate retreat of the Union Army in the 
first battle of Bull Run was partly covered by his 
regiment. He was nominated Consul at Nurem- 
burg, Germany, by President Lincoln. Einstein’s 
regiment had about 30 Jewish officers, of varying 
ranks, and about 60 privates. A regiment, 
known as the Cameron Dragoons, or the Fifth 
Pennsylvania Cavalry, first went into service un¬ 
der the leadership of a Jewish colonel, Max 
Friedman. 

Abraham Hart attained the position of Adju¬ 
tant-General of a brigade in General Blenker’s 
Division of the Army of the Potomac, taking part 
in the battles of the Peninsular campaign. 

The Confederate navy included about twelve 


The Jews in the Making of America ioi 

Jewish officers, which fact indicates that a propor¬ 
tionately larger number of Jews must have served 
in the navy as non-commissioned seamen. 

The Northern Navy brought distinction to Cap¬ 
tain Uriah P. Levy,—who, due to old age did not 
participate in the Civil War, but who up to that 
time held high office in the U. S. Navy. Cabin 
boy at the age of 11, at 14 he was apprenticed as 
sailor and climbed steadily, until at 20 he was 
made master of a schooner. In October, 1812, 
a commission was awarded him as sailing master 
by the U. S. Navy, which threw him in the thick 
of the combat with England. He captured a num¬ 
ber of notable prizes and in turn endured some 
wretched losses. He and his crew were detained 
as prisoners in England for sixteen months. In 
1817 the Senate confirmed his appointment as 
Lieutenant in the Navy. Ill-feeling between Levy 
and some fellow officers at one time sowed the 
seeds of a notorious conflict. He killed a man in 
a duel, an act for which he was court-martialed 
six times and deprived of his rank as Captain. 
He defended himself vigorously, won out and re¬ 
gained his position. Unfortunately, he died 
shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War. His 
tombstone bears a telling inscription: 

“He was the father of the law for the abolition 


102 The Jews in the Making of America 


of the barbarous practice of corporal punishment 
in the U. S. Navy.” 

As a summary, no better estimate of the Jewish 
contribution to the Civil War can be given than 
the following words of Madison C. Peters in his 
work entitled “Justice to the Jews”: 

“It was left for the Civil War to bring out the 
qualities of the Jew as a genuine soldier, as one 
whom no terrors could daunt, no dangers intimi¬ 
date, no sufferings weaken, an automaton of flesh 
and bone impervious to fatigue and hunger. The 
Civil War tried the souls of men as well as their 
bodies, yet the Jew did not shrink. When Lin¬ 
coln called for volunteers the sons of Israel rushed 
to don the blue and followed the flag to death 
or victory. Great numbers were also in the ranks 
of the Confederacy, — a fact which stifles the 
calumny that the Jew when he does fight has no 
heart in the struggle, but merely fights perfunc¬ 
torily and with no object in view. For the time 
being, Judaism was forgotten and the Jew in Blue 
faced the Jew in Gray with a deadly earnestness, 
each believing heart and soul in the cause for 
which he had unsheathed his sword. ‘Stonewall’ 
Jackson and Robert E. Lee gallantly fought for 
the ‘Lost Cause’, and though they were defeated, 
they were not conquered, and of all the brave sons 


The Jews in the Making of America 103 

of the South who fought and bled beneath their 
leadership, none put up a more stubborn fight than 
the Jewish Confederates.” 

The Spanish American War 

The call for volunteers met with an enthusiastic 
response on the part of the Jews. Ancient mem¬ 
ories of the wrongs inflicted upon their people and 
the horrors of the expulsion of 1492 stimulated 
them to bear their portion of the national burden. 
Jewish newspapers, particularly, were very ener¬ 
getic in calling upon the young Jews to avenge 
both the destruction of the Maine and the annihi¬ 
lation of mediaeval Spanish Jewry. More than 
four thousand Jews came forward, according to 
the records of the War Department, which rati¬ 
fied furloughs for the Holy days. A number of 
these volunteers were recent immigrants who had 
already received military training in the armies 
of Russia and Austria. They served with distinc¬ 
tion, eliciting the commendation of Colonel Roose¬ 
velt and other military leaders. 

There were fifteen Jews who went down to a 
watery grave with the Maine. The first to enlist 
was a Jew; the first man to fall in the battle of 
Manila was Sergeant Maurice Juster of the First 
California Volunteers, a regiment which num¬ 
bered too Jews. Colonel Roosevelt’s famous 


104 The Jews in the Making of America 

regiment of Rough Riders contained a half dozen 
Jews, among them one who by his valor won the 
rank of lieutenant. Non-commissioned officers 
numbered several hundred. 

In the Navy, there were twenty officers, all of 
them graduates of the Naval Academy. Edward 
David Taussig was Commander of the Benning¬ 
ton and took possession of Wake Island. Later, 
when the Island of Guam was ceded to the United 
States, Taussig served there as the Chief of the 
Administration. In 1909 he was retired with the 
rank of Rear-Admiral. 

Another outstanding figure among the Jews 
who served in the Navy was Lieutenant Comman¬ 
der Adolph Marix. He graduated from the aca¬ 
demy in 1868 and in 1869 became an ensign. In 
1893 h e became a lieutenant-commander and com¬ 
mander in 1899. On April 11, 1898, two months 
after the Maine was sunk he was appointed to the 
command of the Scorpion. 

When the investigation to determine the cause 
of the explosion on the Maine was set afoot, 
Marix was judge advocate of the Board of In¬ 
quiry. He compiled the momentous report on 
which depended largely the issues of peace and 
war and presented it in person to President Mc¬ 
Kinley on March 26, 1898. During the conflict 
he displayed unusual bravery in two engagements. 


The Jews in the Making of America 105 


Later, when William Howard Taft became Gov¬ 
ernor General of the Philippines, Marix served 
with him in the capacity of Naval Attache, and 
was made Rear-Admiral in 1908. 


CHAPTER VI 

THE JEWS AND THE WORLD WAR 

The Jewish energy and intellectual powers 
which had earned for itself a reputation in times 
of peace turned at the call of the war to service on 
behalf of the national defense. 

The first mobilization of the civil resources of 
the country was undertaken by the Advisory Com¬ 
mission of the Council of National Defense. This 
body, in the words of the historian of this civil 
mobilization, Grosvenor B. Clarkson, “shaped 
and directed the multitudinous contacts of the 
Government with industry, business and the daily 
life of the people.” It was the source from which 
emanated all the ideas which might be utilized for 
perfecting the civil front and making it capable of 
bearing the hardships and necessities of the war. 

In the early stages of the conflict, there were 
seven men who constituted the staff at the head of 
the civil front. Of these seven men, three were 
Jews—Bernard M. Baruch, Samuel Gompers and 
Julius Rosenwald. Though but three percent of 
the population, American Jewry contributed al- 
106 


The Jews in the Making of America 107 

most one half of the personnel of the body which 
guided the destinies of the country in the early 
part of the struggle. 

Later on the form of the Advisory Council 
was changed and the name that was given to it was 
the War Industrial Board. A change of person¬ 
nel took place and the power was centralized in 
the person of the Chairman who was given the 
sole power of decision. Upon him rested a more 
tremendous responsibility than upon any other 
individual and correspondingly there was vested 
in him the power of virtual dictatorship over the 
civil life of the American community. Bernard 
M. Baruch stood at the helm of the mobilization 
of civil resources; he in fact was the Commander- 
in-Chief of the front behind the front. 

Baruch’s peculiar qualifications lay in his unsur¬ 
passed knowledge of the make-up and potentiali¬ 
ties of American industry. “He had examined 
industry,” writes Grosvenor B. Clarkson, the his¬ 
torian of the War Industries Board, “as a biolo¬ 
gist scrutinizes life, organically and functionally. 
He developed a sterling ability to deduce facts 
from figures and the event from the process. Cool 
in judgment, remorseless in decision, methodical in 
action, he was nevertheless a man of susceptible 
emotion, impulsive, kindly and sympathetic.” 

Samuel Gompers was born in England in 1850. 


108 The Jews in the Making of America 

He started life as a cigar maker, a trade which 
he learned at the age of ten. Later he emigrated 
to America where he helped to organize the Cigar 
Makers International. His organizing ability 
soon won general recognition, and in 1882 he was 
elected to the highest place in the American Labor 
world, the presidency of the American Federation 
of Labor. The first six years he served without 
any remuneration, working at the same time in- 
defatigably as the champion of the working 
masses. At his instance, numerous laws in the 
interests of the organization he represented were 
passed. He secured a ten hour limit for railway 
workers, the regulation of child labor and the con¬ 
trol of sweat shops. From an obscure position, 
Gompers has risen to a place of great power in 
the public and political life of America. At the 
peace conference he served as President of the 
International Commission of Labor. He voices 
the aspiration of the vast number of American 
workingmen and workingwomen not only by 
tongue but also by pen and has written se¥et«e?l 
volumes embodying the point of view he has so 
forcefully expounded for several decades. 

The other member of the Advisory Commis¬ 
sion, Julius Rosenwald, is today one of the mer¬ 
chant princes of the country and a supporter on a 
lavish scale of a multitudinous array of philan- 


The Jews in the Making of America 109 

thropic institutions. Born in Springfield, Illinois, 
in 1862, he remains perhaps the greatest mer¬ 
chant in his native state. Since 1910, he has been 
the President of Sears Roebuck, the largest mail 
order house in the country. In 1918 he served 
on a special mission to France. He has been par¬ 
ticularly liberal to institutions which aim to uplift 
the negro race. He has supported with an open 
hand Y. M. C. A. and rural schools for colored 
children. On his fiftieth birthday he donated 
$700,000 to the University of Chicago. He has 
also given $3,400,000 to negro uplift. In addi¬ 
tion he has endowed the medical school of Chi¬ 
cago University with a half million dollar fund, 
while during the late war he expended $1,000,000 
on relief for his suffering Jewish brethren beyond 
the sea. His benefactions cover a number of in¬ 
stitutions without distinction to race or creed. 

In the Department of War, Professor Felix 
Frankfurter of Harvard served in the capacity of 
Assistant to Secretary Baker. Previously to this 
he served as secretary and counsel to the Media¬ 
tion Commission which pacified the serious con¬ 
flicts in the copper, oil, lumber and packing-house 
industry. After the successful termination of his 
duties here, a policies board was created to assist 
him in the work of coordinating the activities of 
the Department of Labor with the production 


no The Jews in the Making of America 

section of the War Department, the Navy De¬ 
partment and the Shipping Board. It was Pro¬ 
fessor Frankfurter’s activity that linked these 
various bodies together and rendered them more 
efficient for the carrying on of the struggle. The 
idea of war savings stamps was originated by a 
Jew, Manny Straus, while the scheme of war risk 
insurance was worked out by another Jew, Gen¬ 
eral S. Herbert Wolfe. Eugene Meyer, Jr. served 
as a member of the War Finance Corporation and 
after the war in 1919 became the chairman of that 
highly important financial organization. 

Scattered throughout the various boards and 
bureaus of the Government were a large number 
of Jews who had earned a reputation for ability 
in civil life and who upon the initiation of hostili¬ 
ties gave up their private business for the public 
cause. The pre-eminence which these Jews earned 
in their business life in time of peace admirably 
fitted them for tackling the multitudinous prob¬ 
lems of organization and business that arose with 
the carrying on of war. Far beyond its due pro¬ 
portion, American Jewry gave forth from its 
midst a number of indispensable leaders at the 
civil front. 

Nor did this participation hinder the activity 
of Jews on the military front. The records of 
the conflict are still inadequate to give a complete 


The Jews in the Making of America hi 

and full picture of the American Jew in the Great 
War. Dr. Julian W. Leavitt of the Bureau of 
Jewish Social Research has, however, done ex¬ 
cellent pioneer work in the tabulation and inter¬ 
pretation of the available statistics which had 
been gathered by the Jewish Welfare Board. 

About 150,000 records of Jewish soldiers were 
collected. Of this amount 140,000 have been tab¬ 
ulated and classified and it is therefore on the 
basis of the latter that the more specific conclu¬ 
sions are drawn. Approximately 114,000 served 
in the army, 13,500 in the navy, and 2,200 in the 
marine corps. Of the remaining 11,000 it has 
been impossible to obtain the exact statistics. 

Here, too, in the military participation of the 
Jew in the war, there emerges the fact of his dis¬ 
proportionate contribution to the fighting arm of 
the war mechanism. The Jewish proportion to 
the general population is but three percent, yet 
the number of Jews who saw service is from 4 to 
5 percent. 

This total is to be explained, to a certain ex¬ 
tent, in terms of the large number of Jewish vol¬ 
unteers who did not wait to be called but entered 
service before their time arrived. This however 
does not explain the whole matter. As Mr. 
Leavitt points out in his brilliant summary, the 
draft system worked with greater efficiency in the 


112 The Jews in the Making of America 

cities than in the rural portions of the country. 
There the wide expanse of the country, the laxness 
of organization, and the inexperience in methods 
of handling large matters militated against an all 
inclusive working of the draft system. In the 
cities, however, where the Jews are congregated, 
the draft machine worked more efficiently, result¬ 
ing in a greater contribution from the urban cen¬ 
ters than from the rural portions of the country. 

Secondly, the law which exempted large classes 
did not touch the Jewish population. These ex¬ 
emptions were granted for participation in indis¬ 
pensable industries such as agriculture, mining, 
munition making, etc. The masses of Jews are 
engaged in occupations which did not come in 
under these exemption laws. And hence this situa¬ 
tion resulted in a disproportionate number of 
Jews in service and a number of exemptions 
smaller than that of the non-Jewish population. 

In examining the Jewish figures it was ascer¬ 
tained that io percent of the men were outside of 
draft age. When in addition to these we take the 
15,700 Jewish sailors and marines we have a sum 
total of about 40,000 volunteers. Even if we sub¬ 
tract a reasonable number of drafted men who 
enlisted, this figure makes the proportion of vol¬ 
untary enlistments a little above the general pro¬ 
portion. 


The Jews in the Making of America 113 

In taking up the distribution of Jews in the vari¬ 
ous branches of the army, we discover the fact 
that in the most arduous and difficult branch, the 
infantry, the proportion of Jews was almost 
double the proportion of non-Jews, while in the 
comparatively sinecure positions, as in the quarter¬ 
master’s department, they were below the general 
proportion. The infantry was 26.6% of the en¬ 
tire army, yet of the Jewish records examined it 
was found that 48% had served in that most diffi¬ 
cult branch of the service. The Quartermaster’s 
Department is 6.2% of the entire army; the pro¬ 
portion of Jews who served there was only 5.9%. 
In the Medical Corps, the Jews had more than 
their proportion largely due, of course, to the un¬ 
usually large number of Jewish doctors through¬ 
out the country. In the Signal and Aviation 
Corps their proportion was double, while in the 
Engineering Corps, Artillery and Cavalry they 
were below the general average. 

Out of these 114,000, army records examined, 
it was discovered that the distribution of Jewish 
soldiers in the various branches of service were as 
follows: 

24,200 Infantry; 7,642 Artillery; 7,884 Medi¬ 
cal Corps; 4,558 Signal and Aviation; 2,496 En¬ 
gineer Corps; 1,239 Cavalry; 1,385 Ordnance; 
13,264 Other Branches. 


114 The Jews in the Making of America 

The total number of commissioned officers was 
7,929. Of these 32 were colonels, 39 lieutenant- 
colonels, 340 majors, 4,802 lieutenants, 1201 cap¬ 
tains and the remainder unspecified. In the Navy 
the total number of Jews who attained ranks of 
commissioned officers was 433. In the marine ser¬ 
vice, the number of commissioned officers was 59. 

Further examination of the army records dis¬ 
closes the fact that these 150,000 records were 
only the first pick. A more intensive examination 
of army records was made and in several cities 
where this new intensive search took place it 
yielded 50% new names. New York City which 
has not been subjected to any intensive search is 
expected to yield another 25,000. And this with 
the 75,000 (50% addition to the first pick) will 
make the total number of Jews in service about a 
quarter of a million. 

In the Quartermaster’s Department it would be 
expected that the Jew because of his business 
ability and experience might be chosen beyond his 
quota; nevertheless, the proportion of non-Jews 
surpassed that of the children of Israel. 

The fact that the Jews were disproportionately 
represented in the most arduous branches of the 
service is not borne out simply by the infantry 
statistics. The shock troops of the war were, as 
is well-known, the marine corps. They saw the 


The Jews in the Making of America 115 

heaviest fighting and distinguished themselves as 
a group above the regular army men. Of the 
65,000 men who constituted the Marine Corps 
as far as it could be ascertained 2,500 were 
Jews, a contribution beyond their 3% quota. 

One of the most thrilling episodes of the war 
was the adventure of the Lost Battalion. This 
group of men consisted of about 40 % Russian and 
Polish Jews from the East Side of New York. 
Lost and cut off from communication for three 
days, they battled valiantly on until reinforce¬ 
ments came to the rescue and drove off the enemy. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Douglas Campbell speak¬ 
ing of this heroic group at the New York Educa¬ 
tional Alliance, April 8, 1919, declared, “The 
Jewish boys of the 77th Division were the best 
soldiers on earth. They have participated in the 
greatest battles and emerged sound. The 77th 
Division of which 40% were Jews, was the only 
division to reach the Meuse, after having pene¬ 
trated into the German lines further than any 
other division.” 

Major General Clarence Edwards, of the 26th 
Division, testifying to the calibre of his Jewish 
soldiers, declared, “I want to tell you that the 
Jews made an enviable record. I remember in¬ 
stances where formerly intolerant Gentiles asked 


n6 The Jews in the Making of America 

that Jews be made officers in order that they might 
be the leaders.” 

The chorus of praise raised by officers who 
had Jews under their direction is also echoed by 
Captain Harrigan of the 77th Division. “One 
particular thing,” he declared, “which was proven 
was that there is no better soldier than the Jewish 
boy. About 40% of the division were Jews. The 
Jew is essentially keen and determined to make 
good. The boys of the 77th fought just that way. 
They would go after a concealed German battery 
as they would after a business difficulty, and they 
would get it.” 

Colonel Whitlesey of the Lost Battalion, who 
led his group throughout the adventure and whose 
contact with the Russian-Jewish soldier was per¬ 
haps closer than that of any other American offi¬ 
cer, was unstinting in his praise. “We officers,” 
he declared, “who served with the 77th have had 
an opportunity to know many Jewish soldiers and 
have come to think of them with admiration. 
Some of them stand out so unforgettably in the 
memory that it is impossible to forget them. 
There was one man for example who seemed the 
worst possible soldier material, thick set, stolid 
looking, extremely alien in face and speech, yet on 
that day when we were holding the bank of the 
Vesle he performed feats as a runner that to my 


The Jews in the Making of America 117 

mind place him in the front rank. For communi¬ 
cation it was necessary to send a runner up and 
down the hill, through thick underbrush in a ter¬ 
rain that would have been difficult enough under 
ordinary circumstances. Under lire this became 
almost impossible, yet this boy volunteered four 
different times and using reserves of wit and cun¬ 
ning, of physical pluck and nervous endurance that 
no one would have supposed him to possess, made 
the trip successfully every time.” 

A total of 600 official citations for gallantry 
and heroism in action was received by Jewish 
members of the service. Three of these received 
the Congressional medal of honor. One of 
them, Sergeant Sydney G. Gompertz, achieved 
the distinction by virtue of a most unprecedented 
act against the enemy. Dispatched with two other 
soldiers to capture an enemy machine gun, he saw 
his companions killed by a bursting shell. He con¬ 
tinued on, however, alone, in the face of an in¬ 
creasing fusilade, jumped into the nest and silenced 
the gun. Single-handed he captured nine of the 
crew who had been working the gun. 

Benjamin Kaufman, separated from his pla¬ 
toon, had his right hand shattered by a machine 
gun bullet. The report proceeds—“Without hes¬ 
itation he advanced on the German line, throwing 
grenades with his left hand and charging with an 


ii8 The Jews in the Making of America 

empty pistol. He scattered the machine gun 
crew, and brought the gun and one prisoner back 
with him to the first aid station.” 

Another recipient of the Congressional medal 
was Jacob L. Sawelson who received it for his son, 
William Sawelson who was killed by machine gun 
fire. On his own initiative, in the face of fierce 
fire, Sawelson left his shelter to bring water to a 
wounded soldier. His gallant attempt cost him 
his life, but nevertheless, it did not go unrewarded. 

In the attempt to ascertain the nature of the 
various types of heroism displayed by Jewish 
soldiers on the battlefield, Dr. Leavitt took at 
random 200 citations from the Jewish group and 
a similar number of citations from the non-Jewish 
group. He classified them into various categories, 
each category necessitating the possession of cer¬ 
tain specific qualities. The result bore out gen¬ 
eral expectations based on a knowledge of Jewish 
character. In dangerous situations where intelli¬ 
gence and resourcefulness was the prime character 
necessary, the Jew excelled 24 to 14. Similarly, 
where sensitiveness to human suffering was a 
necessary characteristic, as for instance in the 
dragging a wounded comrade from a zone of dan¬ 
ger, the Jews excelled also 65 to 45. On the other 
hand, Jewish citations were smaller in number 
than non-Jewish citations in situations where sheer 


The Jews in the Making of America 119 

bull courage and dare deviltry was involved, where 
blindly rushing ahead without realizing the cost 
was necessary. There was a like number, how¬ 
ever, in places where stubborn devotion to duty 
and tenacity of purpose was necessary. 

A disproportionate number of Jews lost their 
lives in the war. The total number of Jewish 
casualties was 3,500, which was 5% of the entire 
death roll. The number of wounded is estimated 
at 12,000, making the total of Jews who died or 
suffered in the late war approximately 15,000 to 
16,000. 


CHAPTER VII 

IN AMERICAN ECONOMIC LIFE 

The early immigrants and their descendants, 
despite their numerically insignificant proportion, 
exercised considerable influence upon the upbuild¬ 
ing of the colonies. They numbered only several 
thousand, yet they were able to play an important 
role in the foundation of the international trade. 
Towards the middle of the last century a new 
migration of Jews came. The later arrivals were 
of German origin. Starting upon the lowest rungs 
of the economic ladder, they were able to raise 
themselves within two generations upon a comfort¬ 
able economic and social plane. 

The older Spanish Jews were submerged by the 
new German Jewish immigration and now there 
are but few traces left of the earliest Jewish set¬ 
tlers in America. The newcomers started as 
peddlers and shopkeepers in contradistinction to 
the Sephardic Jews who had carried on an exten¬ 
sive import and export trade. From these small 
shops started by German Jews there arose that 
vast chain of department stores which now dot 
120 


The Jews in the Making of America 121 

the country. The names of Straus, Altman, 
Gimbel, Stern and Bloomingdale are evidence of 
the rise of obscure Jewish merchants to a place of 
eminence in the economic world. The Jew, trained 
for centuries in the art of combination, developed 
the department store to its present extent. By 
placing all the necessary commodities under one 
roof he saved time and energy to the consuming 
public. 

The descendants of these Sephardic and Ger¬ 
man Jews are engaged largely in mercantile pur¬ 
suits. They are the stockbrokers, the bankers, 
the money lenders, and up to the Russian influx, 
they dominated the clothing trade. It is rare in¬ 
deed that one finds a native Jew below the rank 
of storekeeper or salesman. From this group 
there have come the great Jewish families of 
America, the Schiffs, the Warburgs, the Loebs, 
the Strauses, etc. 

While this group is dominant in the department 
store world, in the realm of finance it plays but a 
minor role. The American financial world is cen¬ 
tered in large non-Jewish houses like Morgan, the 
National City Bank, the Chase National and 
other institutions of a similar nature which have 
very few, if any, Jewish affiliations. One must see 
a convention of American bankers to realize how 
amazingly small is the part played by the Jew in 


122 The Jews in the Making of America 

American finance in contrast with that of his 
European brethren. The largest Jewish house is 
Kuhn, Loeb & Co. There are others, like the 
Seligmans and the Speyers, but in the sum total 
of American finance they are only of lesser im¬ 
portance. Kuhn, Loeb & Co. has an extensive in¬ 
terest in the Harriman railway system; in fact, at 
a critical hour, it was this house that came to its 
rescue. 

On the Stock Exchange the Jews are no more 
than about ten percent, though they are heavy in¬ 
vestors. A curious fact has been noted,—that 
Jewish investors prefer dealings with non-Jewish 
brokers, and non-Jewish investors prefer to have 
their dealings with Jewish houses. Among the 
beef barons one finds Sulzberger, Morris and 
Schwarzchild, all of whom, however, are insigni¬ 
ficant besides the gigantic combination of Armour 
and Swift. Smelting and the Colorado mines are 
dominated by Jews; it is from this source that the 
Guggenheim family has amassed most of its 
wealth. 

After the German-Jewish element had achieved 
a state of economic security, a new migration of 
Jews from Eastern Europe set in. They came in 
a more impoverished state than their predecessors, 
who had commenced life as peddlers, hucksters 
and old clothes men. There was, however, one out- 


The Jews in the Making of America 123 

standing difference. In the newer stratum of im¬ 
migrants one found a majority of manual workers 
and laborers while the earlier group consisted 
almost entirely of middlemen. According to the 
compilation of statistics published by the Com¬ 
missioner General of Immigration it was found 
that of 330,573 Jews who were admitted during 
1901-1906 no less than about two-thirds were in¬ 
dustrial workers. Every category of manual labor 
found representation in the new flow. The largest 
percentage was engaged in the garment industry. 
There were 78,502 tailors, 13,123 shoe makers, 
22,875 carpenters and cabinet makers, 4,882 
blacksmiths, 4,401 tinners, etc. 

The reason for the Jewish preponderance in the 
cloth industry is not far to seek. Tailoring is a 
sedentary pursuit and therefore has an appeal to 
the Jew who is unfit for the heaviest kind of man¬ 
ual labor. Throughout the centuries tailoring 
has been a Jewish trade and the participation of 
the Jew in the American clothing business is in 
conformity with a long established tradition. 
Wherever Russian Jews are settled one comes 
across the ubiquitous tailor. Coming to America 
they found the trade in the hands of the German- 
Jewish element. A rivalry soon developed; but 
by virtue of his staying power, the Russian Jew 
triumphed and now he is undisputed master. All 


124 The Jews in the Making of America 

Americans go about in Jew’s clothing. The vast 
majority of the workers are Jews and practically 
all manufacturers are members of the race. 

The revolution in the clothing industry which 
enabled the Jews to raise it to a place of promi¬ 
nence among the national industries is an interest¬ 
ing bit of economic history. In 1880, when the 
Russo-Jewish influx began, the investment in the 
industry was $60,000,000. Within a span of 
thirty years the investment had increased about 
1,500%. This, as a deputy in the German 
Reichstag once declared, was not due so much to 
the McKinley and Dingley tariff bill as to the in¬ 
telligence and industry of the Russian Jew. 

The United States Industrial Commission, in¬ 
vestigating the status of the needle industries, re¬ 
marks that this successful revolution is to be at¬ 
tributed to the willingness of the Russian Jew “to 
change the mode of production by using the sew¬ 
ing machine and the division of labor against 
which the native tailor showed a decided aver¬ 
sion.” The basic idea of the factory system, spe¬ 
cialization and division of labor was taken up by 
the Jew at his advent in the industry and by the 
utilization of this idea he transformed completely 
the entire industry and raised it to its present 
status. 

The workingmen in the men’s clothing industry 


The Jews in the Making of America 125 

are organized in the Amalgamated Clothing 
Workers of America, the presiding genius of 
which is Sidney Hillman. At the inception of the 
union sweating conditions were widely prevalent, 
but in the course of a few years these immigrant 
Jews completely standardized the industry, elimi¬ 
nated the intolerable conditions and enabled the 
workers to realize their ideal of an American 
standard of living. Now they rank among the 
best paid workers in America. Over nine hundred 
million dollars is invested in the clothing business, 
and great stretches of the business section of New 
York are occupied by Jewish clothiers. In Roch¬ 
ester, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Chicago and other 
large cities where the Amalgamated is repre¬ 
sented, a large percentage of the Russian Jews 
there are also occupied in the same branch of 
labor. The total membership of the Union is 
over 180,000. 

Allied to the clothing industry are phases of 
economic life in which the Jews play a dominating 
role. The manufacture of all kinds of women’s 
apparel, skirts, cloaks, the preparing of furs, etc., 
are in Jewish hands, as is also the means of their 
distribution to the general public. Here, too, a 
large union has been organized, the International 
Ladies’ Garment Workers, affiliated with the 
American Federation of Labor. Its membership 


126 The Jews in the Making of America 

is largely Jewish and it has attained a standard of 
trade conditions equal to that of the Amalga¬ 
mated. The total number of its adherents is 
about 140,000. 

These great Jewish trade unions have de¬ 
veloped a more extensive program of activity than 
that which characterizes the other workingmen’s 
unions. Their members are organized not only 
for economic purposes, but for cultural and other 
ends. The elimination of the sweatshop and the 
attainment of the American standard of living has 
been coupled with the motto of general better¬ 
ment. Night schools are conducted where the 
Jewish worker is taught history, science, civics and 
English by competent professors, who during the 
day teach in nearby universities. The Amalga¬ 
mated has opened up a bank for its members in 
order to encourage thrift. Health centres where 
medical and dental treatment are given to mem¬ 
bers at a nominal fee have also been established, 
while for the summer the International Ladies’ 
Garment Workers Union conducts a large sum¬ 
mer resort, the Unity House, where its members 
may rest from the work of the past year. Their 
magazines contain more than mere items about 
trade union activities, they also contain articles 
on world politics, literature, and kindred subjects 
of cultural value. In short, the Jewish unions 


The Jews in the Making of America 127 

have developed their organization from the level 
of a mere economic unit, into a medium for the 
raising of the general cultural condition of its 
members and for the diffusion of learning among 
the laboring classes. 

It is a mistake, however, to think that all Rus¬ 
sian Jews are engaged in the clothing trade. 
Other industries also possess their Jewish quota. 
Jews are found in the furniture making and house 
decoration industry. They are also expert in 
what may be called the gentler manufactures; they 
are jewelers, watchmakers and producers of elec¬ 
trical appliances. Twenty-five percent of the sil¬ 
versmiths of America are Jews. With the oppor¬ 
tunity of joining unions and engaging in manual 
labor open to him, there has been noticeable an 
increasing trend of Jews to painting, bricklaying, 
tanning and building industries. 

The purchase of real estate and the building of 
new houses has become a Jewish business in New 
York, and in the other large cities where Jews are 
represented in appreciable numbers. Whole 
stretches of hitherto uninhabited territory, like 
the Bronx, Borough Park and Bensonhurst in 
New York City, Douglas Park section in Chicago 
and similar sections in the other cities have been 
converted into veritable cities, where block after 
block of fine suburban residences house the Jewish 


128 The Jews in the Making of America 

population. Land values within ten years have 
risen to an extent undreamed of. Barren and de¬ 
serted spots have been turned into fine residential 
sections with all the latest advantages of a modern 
community. The tenement sections into which 
they migrated several decades earlier have been 
to a certain extent rebuilt; numbers of old private 
houses and slum dwellings have been converted 
into up-to-date double decker apartments. 

A perusal of the real estate columns of the 
daily newspapers bring out the fact that the over¬ 
whelming majority of buyers of real estate are 
German and Russian Jews. The vast heterogene¬ 
ous population of New York City are sheltered 
in Jewish houses. The Real Estate Record and 
Guide might be mistaken for a Jewish directory 
of the city. 

These Jewish operators do not confine them¬ 
selves to the East side, but extend their activities 
to all parts of the Greater City and its environs. 
There is more than an accidental connection be¬ 
tween the tremendous rise of real estate values 
in New York City since the 9o’s and the expansion 
of the Jewish community in the metropolis. In 
critical times, however, more than one fortune 
went with greater rapidity than it came. Never¬ 
theless, as a result of this unparalleled expansion, 
a large number of erstwhile Jewish pushcart ped- 


The Jews in the Making of America 129 

dlers and storekeepers marched triumphantly 
through the portals of homes in New York’s 
most exclusive residential section. 

The Jews have practically rebuilt the most im¬ 
portant parts of the city. Tremendous office 
buildings have replaced the decaying old homes 
of the Colonial aristocracy; the apartment houses 
on the west side and the magnificent hotels in the 
theatrical section have arisen as the result of the 
Jewish influx in the building industry. The peo¬ 
ple that forty centuries ago built Pithom and 
Rameses and the pyramids of Egypt, symbols of a 
vanished glory and greatness, are still actively 
building; this time they are erecting the massive 
monuments of a 20th century industrial and 
mechanical civilization. 

Pre-eminent among these refugees from Old 
World oppression who have transformed the face 
of the world’s metropolis is Louis J. Horowitz, 
the directing genius behind the Thompson-Star- 
rett Company, which is perhaps the largest builder 
of skyscrapers in the world. At the age of seven¬ 
teen he arrived as an immigrant boy from Poland. 
Starting his American life at the munificent salary 
of three dollars a week, this immigrant youth com¬ 
menced one of the most amazing careers in con¬ 
temporary America. He entered the real estate 
business, and after serving in the capacity of as- 


130 The Jews in the Making of America 

sistant to Theodore Starrett for six years, he be¬ 
came the president and general manager of the 
concern. 

Perhaps the most notable of the buildings 
erected by his guiding mind is the Equitable Build¬ 
ing. It is the largest office building in the world, 
'517 feet above the street level, 42 stories high, 
equipped with sixty-three elevators and contain¬ 
ing 2,300 offices. Another achievement is the con¬ 
struction of the powder plant at Nitro, West Vir¬ 
ginia during the war. In eight months he put up 
three thousand buildings and constructed a verit¬ 
able city at a cost of $65,000,000. 

Horowitz is responsible also for the erection 
of the Woolworth Building, the tallest building 
in the world, the New York Municipal Building, 
the McAlpin and Claridge Hotels, the Gimbel 
Brothers department Store, the Continental and 
Commercial National Bank buildings of Chicago, 
the Metropolis Bank building of San Francisco, 
the Union Bank Building of Winnipeg, Canada, 
the Union Station of Washington, D. C. and the 
Soo Line Terminal Elevator of Minneapolis, 
Minn. 

Not all of the immigrants have remained in the 
cities. One of the most welcome signs of the 
times has been the return of the Jews to agricul¬ 
ture. For a number of centuries the Jew was con- 


The Jews in the Making of America 131 

fined to a Ghetto and forbidden to cultivate the 
soil, and up to a few years ago, this state of 
affairs prevailed in Eastern Europe. Despite the 
imposition of these hostile edicts, the love of the 
Jew for the open did not completely vanish. In 
America there has been a response to freer condi¬ 
tions and greater opportunity. In Europe, Ar¬ 
gentine and Palestine also, the return of the Jew 
to agriculture has been facilitated; in fact, the 
back to the soil movement among the Jews is 
world wide. We are witnessing the re-creation 
of an agricultural class. 

In New England there are many Jewish dairy 
farmers. In Minnesota, Oregon, Arkansas and 
Colorado also one finds Jewish farmers. There 
are several Jewish agricultural communities like 
Woodbine, New Jersey, and Carmel, New Jersey, 
where Jewish husbandmen are comparatively 
numerous. Deserted homesteads have been taken 
up by Jews and converted into profitable ventures, 
while government lands also have their quota of 
Jewish settlers. 

At Doylestown, Pa., there is the National Farm 
School founded by the late Rabbi Joseph Kraus- 
kopf. This institution teaches scientific agricul¬ 
ture to young men. The course is of four years’ 
duration and tuition is free. At Woodbine, N. J., 
there is the Baron de Hirsch School which gives 


132 The Jews in the Making of America 


a similar course of instruction to aspiring agri¬ 
culturalists. The problem of keeping the young 
people on the farm is being met by lectures in the 
winter and by the granting of scholarships which 
enable the children of farmers to attend courses 
in the State Agricultural Colleges. A publication, 
the Jewish Farmer, is also printed. By this means 
there is spread among the Jewish farming popula¬ 
tion the latest knowledge concerning farming 
methods and agricultural appliances. At present, 
it is estimated 100,000 Jews are engaged in agri¬ 
culture and the total value of farm land owned 
by them is believed to be in the vicinity of 
$100,000,000. 

This redistribution of the Jewish population 
has been done in a systematic and concerted 
fashion. A large portion of this activity has been 
done by the Jewish Agricultural and Industrial 
Aid Society. This organization, subsidized by the 
Baron de Hirsch Fund began its activities as soon 
as the Russo-Jewish migration had begun to be 
felt in the congested cities. Its activity is increas¬ 
ing every year. Its purposes were: 

The encouragement of agriculture and the re¬ 
moval of persons from congested sections of the 
city to agricultural and industrial districts with 
provision for their temporary support. 

Loans to mechanics, artisans and tradesmen to 


The Jews in the Making of America 133 

enable them to secure larger earnings and accumu¬ 
late savings for homes. 

The removal of industries from congested sec¬ 
tions to other districts where employees may con¬ 
tinue to labor and acquire individual homes. 

Encouragement of cooperative creameries, fac¬ 
tories and storage houses for canning and preserv¬ 
ing food. 

In these Jewish agricultural schools hundreds 
of young men were trained for agricultural ac¬ 
tivity. A large number occupy prominent posi¬ 
tions in the Federal and State Agricultural ser¬ 
vice. The Farm Labor Bureau operated by the 
Society has placed, since its inception, thousands 
of young men upon farms. 

Among those trained in Jewish agricultural in¬ 
stitutions who have attained prominence in their 
particular field are Jacob G. Lipman, Professor 
of Soil Chemistry in New Jersey Agricultural Col¬ 
lege and Director of State Experiment Station, 
who is a product of the Baron de Hirsch School; 
his brother C. B. Lipman, Associate Professor of 
Soil Chemistry at the University of California; 
M. E. Jaffa, another graduate of the Baron de 
Hirsch School, Nutrition Expert of the California 
Agricultural Experiment Station; Jacob Tauben- 
haus, graduate of the National Farm School, 
who is Assistant Professor of Plant Pathology at 


134 The Jews in the Making of America 

the Delaware Agricultural College; Maurice 
Mitzman, graduate of the National Farm School, 
Chief Entomologist of the U. S. Department of 
Agriculture in the Philippine Islands. 

Some of the outstanding figures in the Agricul¬ 
tural life of America have been Jews. David 
Lubin, born in Poland in 1849, came to America 
at an early age. His education had been very 
limited, and upon arrival here, he worked in a 
jewelry factory in Attleboro, Mass. Later he 
drifted to California where he started a dry goods 
business. Here he sold large numbers of overalls 
to farmers. A keen interest in their problems and 
life awakened in him and soon he turned to fruit 
growing. While engaged in this occupation there 
occurred to him a great idea, towards the realiza¬ 
tion of which he dedicated his life. What im¬ 
pressed him most was the need of creating an 
International Institute of Agriculture, which could 
serve as a clearing house for information and 
knowledge concerning the state of crops through¬ 
out the world. He also began at this time studies 
in the realm of plant pathology. He travelled 
throughout the world in behalf of his scheme. 
The King of Italy became interested in the idea, 
donated a building and an annual income of $60,- 
000. At the first gathering about forty nations 
were represented; later no less than fifty-three 


The Jews in the Making of America 135 

sent their delegates. At the Congress of 1913 
Lubin was presented with a silver cup as the orig¬ 
inator of the idea. 

Lubin, however, did not confine himself simply 
to this part of his life work. The amelioration 
of the condition of the American farmer made an 
irresistible appeal to him. He was responsible 
for the creation of the rural credit scheme and 
after ceaseless agitation had the satisfaction of 
seeing this epoch-making enactment pass through 
Congress. He brought about the passage of a 
measure for increasing parcel post service for the 
benefit of the farmer. This resulted in the pro¬ 
moting of direct selling and buying of farm prod¬ 
uce through the mails. He extended his activity 
to farmers’ co-operatives and also to oceanic ship¬ 
ping. He introduced a national marketing pro¬ 
posal on the lines of the German Landwirtschaft. 

The successor of Lubin as a great constructive 
factor in American Agriculture is Aaron Sapiro 
(born in San Francisco, 1884). It is only within 
the last few years that Sapiro has set himself to 
organizing the farmers of the country for the im¬ 
provement of their economic conditions, yet in 
that short period he has achieved a notable suc¬ 
cess. He has enrolled under his banner groups of 
farmers, the total membership of which is in the 
vicinity of half a million. Farmers in every state 


136 The Jews in the Making of America 

of the Union have in him their champion, raisers 
of every conceivable product from beans to 
onions, from potatoes to prunes. 

Sapiro is the evangelist of the new gospel of 
co-operative marketing. In his role of counselor 
and advisor to three score farmers' organizations, 
he has effected changes in the laws of seventeen 
states in order to facilitate the creation of easier 
methods of marketing. 

“To his half-million followers”, writes Merle 
Crowell in the American Magazine for May, 
1922, “Sapiro is a Moses leading them from the 
wilderness to the Promised Land. His six funda¬ 
mental principles of successful co-operation are 
today being quoted so generally that at least half 
of their protagonists have forgotten who worked 
them out in the first place.” 

Sapiro, who is of Russian Jewish parentage and 
an ex-rabbinical student, was appointed counsel to 
the State Market Commission in 1915. He 
studied the records of market activity and then 
formulated a model plan to eliminate waste and 
inefficiency. Later on he became the advisor of 
one group of farmers to whom he expounded his 
gospel; and soon egg producers, cotton growers, 
tobacco raisers and a host of farmers were or¬ 
ganized under his tutelage. At present his ac- 


The Jews in the Making of America 137 

tivities are beginning to embrace the farmers of 
the Dominion of Canada. 

“A typical scene was enacted a few months ago 
in Abilene, Texas,” writes Merle Crowell in the 
above mentioned article. “Twenty-five hundred 
farmers followed Sapiro for more than a mile 
through the streets, trying to find a meeting place 
big enough to hold them. Then arrangements 
were finally made to use the First Baptist Church, 
the biggest building in town. The crowd rushed 
pell-mell for several blocks, so anxious was every 
one to get a seat. Once the farmers were jammed 
into the church, they remained there to the last 
man, while Sapiro was expounding his gospel of 
co-operation.” 

American life completely transforms these 
homeless wanderers. The improvident American 
born Jew is very rare. Only two percent of the 
applicants for Jewish charity were born in the 
United States. The vast majority of the Jewish 
dependents come from the diseased and defective 
classes, from among the widows with small chil¬ 
dren, the aged and the infirm. To meet this there 
has arisen a tremendous system of philanthropic 
institutions which have no parallel among the 
other immigrant groups. The Jews of New York 
City alone spend $7,000,000 a year on charity. 
The able bodied require assistance only during 


138 The Jews in the Making of America 

commercial and industrial crises. One great ad¬ 
vantage belongs to the Jew, he is a natural born 
abstainer from alcoholic excesses, whereas count¬ 
less thousands of non-Jews are thrown into the 
pauper class by drink. The Jew remains immune 
from its ravages. It has been estimated that 25% 
or more of the non-Jewish applicants for relief 
owe their condition to alcoholism. Dr. Fishberg, 
the eminent authority on Jewish pathology, states 
that among the thousands of Jewish needy he has 
met less than a half dozen who were pauperized 
by the use of alcohol. 

The comparative success of the Jew and his 
powers of recuperation can be traced to his free¬ 
dom from alcoholic excesses. His blood has not 
been poisoned by drink and hence he retains pos¬ 
session of his faculties. He is the world’s leading 
example of sobriety and of its value in economic 
life. The Jews approach the American standard 
of living with perhaps greater rapidity than any 
other immigrant group. The Ghetto is only a 
sieve, through which the more competent pass, 
leaving behind a residue that must still toil for 
economic security. But even in the Ghetto the 
appendages of culture are visible. Music teachers 
are without number, the libraries are crowded at 
all hours of the day. Even in the very poor homes 
one sees pianos and bookshelves. After a few 


The Jews in the Making of America 139 

years, the Jew of the Ghetto removes from the 
slums, but if he must remain, he completely re¬ 
models them in conformity with more desirable 
tastes. All this is due to his thrift and sobriety. 
Even before prohibition the saloons vanished in 
those localities where the Jews made their homes. 
This being the case, the Jew has never sunk to the 
low level of the non-Jewish European and Amer¬ 
ican slum population with its appalling misery, re¬ 
sulting from drink, hereditary vice, shiftlessness 
and degradation. 

The concentration of the Jews in certain lines 
of industry does not remain after the first genera¬ 
tion. It is rare indeed that one finds the son fol¬ 
lowing the trade of the father. The situation of 
the Jew becomes normalized; there is a general 
spreading out into all the lines of economic en¬ 
deavor. The young Jew is a most sedulous at¬ 
tendant at the high schools and night schools. In 
response to the urge of the Jewish youth of the 
lower economic strata, a unique system of pre¬ 
paratory schools has been opened to enable these 
clerks, stenographers and workingmen to pass the 
requirements of the State Board of Regents. 
Some of these schools are even worked on a co¬ 
operative basis so that none may receive an iota 
of profit out of their needs. 

The Civil Service, Federal, State and Muni- 


140 The Jews in the Making of America 


cipal, have claimed a large number of Jews of the 
second generation. Public School teaching, sten¬ 
ography, and bookkeeping are the favorite pur¬ 
suits of the young Jewesses, while salesmanship 
has exerted its natural appeal to the young Ameri¬ 
can born Jew. Besides the regular vocational 
schools which have a large Jewish quota, the 
Jewish Technical Institute of New York has 
trained during its existence thousands of young 
mechanics, electricians, plumbers, etc. 

The Jew excels in intellectual pursuits. His 
position in the colleges and universities has of 
late been the subject of a great deal of comment. 
In an attempt to ascertain the number of students 
of the Jewish race in the various higher institu¬ 
tions of learning, the Bureau of Jewish Social Re¬ 
search gives the figures available for 106 institu¬ 
tions. Out of a total of 153,085 students, Jews 
numbered 14,837, that is, 9.7% of the entire stu¬ 
dent body. The Jewish representation in aca¬ 
demic spheres is three times their proportion to 
the general population. In New York City, how¬ 
ever, the Jewish representation is 38.5%, while 
their proportion to the city’s population is about 
30%. Female students are on the average of one 
to five, somewhat lower than the percentage 
among non-Jews, where the proportion of female 
students to male is one to three. The largest num- 


The Jews in the Making of America 141 

ber of female students attended courses In com¬ 
merce and finance, the next largest were preparing 
for the teaching profession. 

In New York City, during the scholastic year 
1918-1919, the total number of Jewish students 
at Adelphi, Polytechnic, Columbia, Fordham, 
Hunte,r, Long Island Medical, New York Uni¬ 
versity and the College of Dental and Oral Sur¬ 
gery was 7,148 out of a total of 18,552. 

Striking differences appear in the distribution 
of Jews and non-Jews in the professional schools 
of the country. About 23.17% of the Jewish stu¬ 
dents attended courses in finance while of the non- 
Jewish students the average was 11.8%. In 
medicine the Jewish proportion was almost double 
the proportion of non-Jews, while in the study of 
law, 14.7% of the Jewish student body participated 
and only 6.4% of the non-Jewish group. In den¬ 
tistry also there is a Jewish flux, the proportion of 
Jews being 12% while that of the non-Jewish 
group is 4.7%. 

There is a reversal of this situation in engineer¬ 
ing, where the non-Jewish proportion is double 
that of Jewish. 

About 8.1% of the Gentile student body were 
represented in agriculture. Here the Jews were 
numerically insignificant, the Jewish forestry stu¬ 
dents were 1.6% of the entire Jewish group. In 


142 The Jews in the Making of America 

the teaching profession the Gentile average was 
larger also, 13.5% to 5%. 

It may be interesting to note, in this connection, 
that the Jewish students have contributed more 
than their share toward the intellectual activities 
of our colleges. Jews form a large proportion of 
our intercollegiate debaters; Jewish names are re¬ 
markably prominent among prize winners in all 
sorts of intellectual contests; and in the College 
Anthologies, edited by Dr. Henry T. Schnittkind 
who selects annually the best poems written by 
undergraduates, the poems of Jewish students are 
more than 15% of the total. 

The ideal American differs from the ideal 
European in that he is an individualist, the pos¬ 
sessor of initiative, of ambition, of the desire to 
achieve and to mould. It is this ideal which finds 
in the Jew its arch propagandist. America was 
created as an experiment by its more idealistic 
founders, as an attempt to see how far the exten¬ 
sion of opportunities for material well-being and 
spiritual development could redeem the individual 
fleeing from a caste-ridden Europe; and the suc¬ 
cess of individuals or groups stands as a vindica¬ 
tion of the judgment of the early fathers. The 
comparative success of the Jews in this respect 
acts as a constant stimulant upon the neighboring 
immigrants of other groups, and by virtue of that 


The Jews in the Making of America 143 


he becomes the exponent of the gospel of Amer¬ 
ica,—the gospel that the good things of life come 
to those who have ability to achieve them. 

On November 30, 1907, the New York Italian 
newspaper, Bollettino della Serra printed the 
following editorial. 

Let us do as the Jews do. Do we not all see the giant 
strides which the Hebrew element is making in their grow¬ 
ing influence in this country ? . . . Israelites are the law¬ 
yers, judges, doctors, professors, teachers, managers of 
theatres, monopolists of the arts. The most perfect insti¬ 
tutions of mutual aid and providence are Israelite. Their 
clubs, social, political, artistic and professional, are the best 
of their kind. Their schools are the most frequented and 
active. . . . Those who can emulate them in this method 
of intellectual and social invasion are the Italians who 
have much affinity of intellect and artistic sensibility with 
the old and refined Jewish race. But we must do as they 
do, we must invade the schools, teach ourselves, have our 
children taught. Open to them the social paths by means 
of knowledge and genius. . . . Without being niggardly 
and egotistic as the Jew sometimes is, let us try to imitate 
him in his ardor for conquest and in the discipline and 
knowledge with which he knows how to organize his ad¬ 
mirable institutions, which put him in a position to raise a 
high voice and command respect for the name of the race. 

This is the reason we have put at the head of this arti¬ 
cle the exhortation, “Let us do as the Jews do.” 


CHAPTER VIII 


IN THE AMERICAN THEATRE 

In the theatre of America, the Jew has played 
a role disproportionate entirely to his numerical 
strength. He has reorganized its corporate man¬ 
agement and given it a solidity and stability lack¬ 
ing in previous stages of development. The fly- 
by-night companies, the individualistic efforts of 
star-producers doomed to defeat because of errors 
of reorganization and management, have com¬ 
pletely disappeared. A vast amount of new capi¬ 
tal has been poured in, making possible lavish pro¬ 
ductions and gigantic spectacles beyond the means 
of the earlier producers. 

An indispensable aid in the attainment of the 
Jew’s role in the theatre has been his faculty for 
gauging the demands of the public. The produc¬ 
tion of a play is one of the most risky of all ven¬ 
tures. A large outlay of capital is spent prior 
to the rising of the first curtain, yet the whims of 
the public and its ultimate verdict as to the success 
of the play are rarely certain. Besides the posses- 
144 


The Jews in the Making of America 145 

sion of prophetic powers, there is also necessary 
enterprise, initiative, the capacity for organiza¬ 
tion; these characteristics have always been asso¬ 
ciated with the Jew. 

Thus it is that he has risen to a place of promi¬ 
nence in the theatrical world. And despite the 
carping of critics, it is during the supremacy of the 
Jew in the American theatre that St. John Irvine, 
the English playwright, could with truth say that 
the center of the English speaking stage has been 
transferred from England to America. It is dur¬ 
ing this period that American plays have often sup¬ 
planted the native play in favor and popularity 
among the populations of the European Capitals. 
It is during this period that we have European 
directors arriving on these shores to see the de¬ 
velopment and improvement of the American 
stage and to learn lessons about dramatic produc¬ 
tion. It is during this period that we have vice 
versa, the importation to America of the best that 
Europe has in the theatre and the emergence of a 
real native American drama. 

The Jews are represented in all the phases of 
dramatic endeavor. It has been estimated that of 
the plays produced during 1922 the authors of 
40% were Jews, and the professional art directors 
were one third of the total. Of the two thousand 
actors about 10% were Jews, while the majority 


146 The Jews in the Making of America 

of theatres in which productions were staged were 
in the hands of Jewish managers. 

A host of Jewish producers have arisen since 
the Jewish influx into the American theatre. 
David Belasco and Charles Frohman were among 
the pioneers, but since then a number of others 
have appeared on the scene. Morris Gest, the 
Selwyns, the Woodses, Sam Harris, Mindlin and 
Goldreyer, the Shuberts, are among the later 
arrivals. Some have been content to please the 
popular demand, and some have, on the other 
hand, attempted the hazardous and usually thank¬ 
less job of educating the public taste to more 
artistic standards. 

David Belasco (born San Francisco, 1850) is 
the oldest and best known of the Jewish managers. 
He comes from a family that numbered among its 
members several devotees of the histrionic art. 
Starting his career as an actor, he supported the 
greatest of the early American players,—Charles 
Kean, Edwin Forrest, Edwin Booth, and others. 
Later he appeared in New York where he deter¬ 
mined to set out as a producer. His first inde¬ 
pendent production was in 1895, when he pro¬ 
duced the “Heart of Maryland.” It was Belasco 
who discovered some of the great performers of 
the American stage. He brought out Warfield, 
Leslie Carter, Blanche Bates, Frances Starr, 


The Jews in the Making of America 147 

Leonore Ulrich, and a host of others, who under 
his guidance, have since made much of the dra¬ 
matic history of America. Some of his produc¬ 
tions are the landmarks of theatrical development. 
Among them are the “Music Master,” “Du- 
Barry,” “Girl of the Golden West,” “Return of 
Peter Grimm,” etc. While over seventy, he still is 
as active as ever, the Nestor and the most impres¬ 
sive figure of the American theatre. 

His son-in-law, Morris Gest, is a Russian immi¬ 
grant Jew who has risen by sheer energy and in¬ 
telligence from obscurity to a place of dominance 
in the world of drama. Gest came to America at 
the age of nine. After doing all sorts of menial 
labor he participated in the Pan American Exposi¬ 
tion, an experience which gave him his first deep 
insight into the production of public spectacles. 
Later on he found work with Oscar Hammerstein, 
who told him he would some day own the Man¬ 
hattan Opera House, a prophecy which has since 
then been realized. He became the foreign agent 
for Hammerstein and later branched out for him¬ 
self. 

Gest is a specialist in gigantic and lavish pro¬ 
ductions that delight the eye with their colorful 
beauty. He staged “The Wanderer,” “Experi¬ 
ence,” “Chu Chin Chow” which ran for several 
years in London, “Aphrodite,” “Mecca,” “The 


148 The Jews in the Making of America 

Miracle,” etc. Gest also has been instrumental in 
giving to America a glimpse of the art of Europe, 
particularly Russia. All the Russian productions 
which have created a veritable sensation in the 
theatre have been produced under his guidance. 
He has brought over to America the Ballet Russe, 
Fokine, Balieff’s Chauve Souris, and last and most 
important of all the Moscow Art Theatre. 

Daniel and Charles Frohman, of whom only the 
former survives, were together with Belasco, the 
pioneers of the newer American drama. Charles 
Frohman met his death on the Lusitania. His 
brother Daniel has remained one of the luminaries 
in the theatrical world. Starting life as an office 
boy on the New York Tribune, he later entered 
the theatrical business. Since 1885 he has distin¬ 
guished himself by the production of some of the 
classics of the American stage. He is held in high 
esteem by the profession and has been elected to 
the Presidency of the Actors’ Fund. He is con¬ 
nected with the Lyceum Theatre, Daly’s Theatre, 
and a number of other houses. 

But if the Jew has played an important role in 
the creation of the commercial drama, his partici¬ 
pation in the so-called artistic drama has been 
more potent. All the varied attempts which have 
been made during the past decade or so to produce 
a drama with a primary eye to artistic and 


The Jews in the Making of America 149 

aesthetic values have been originated or sponsored 
to a large extent by Jews. The New Theatre, the 
Washington Square Players, the Neighborhood 
Playhouse and the Theatre Guild are all evidences 
of the insurgent Jewish mind, active in its new 
role of improving upon the standard plays. What 
is necessary for success in this realm of dramatic 
endeavor is the unique duality which seems to be 
present in the personality of many Jews, the vision 
of the unseen and of the ideal, sobered by an acute 
knowledge of reality. 

The Theatre Guild stands out perhaps as the 
foremost contribution to the contemporary non¬ 
commercial drama. Started some years ago, with 
but a hundred and fifty subscribers, today it is 
hailed as the basis of a new National Art Theatre. 
The first important production which it staged was 
“John Ferguson” by St. John Irvine, a play which 
Lawrence Langner, one of the directors, happened 
to pick up accidentally in Brentano’s London 
Bookshop. Since then, the best of our contempo¬ 
rary drama has been produced there. Plays which 
would have been rejected by the commercial man¬ 
agers were staged solely for their artistic and 
aesthetic value. Plays which are profitable are 
made to pay for plays which require too high a 
standard of dramatic appreciation and which 
therefore are of a limited appeal. 


150 The Jews in the Making of America 


The Guild has staged among other plays — 
“The Power of Darkness,” “The Faithful,” “Jane 
Clegg,” “Heartbreak House,” “Liliom,” “Am¬ 
bush,” etc. Theresa Helbrum, a young Jewess of 
brilliant attainments, is exeuctive director of the 
organization. On the Board of Managers only 
one, Helen Westley, is non-Jewish. Philip Moel¬ 
ler, one of the founders of the Washington Square 
Players, author of “Moliere” and “Madame 
Sand,” is a member of the Board. Associated 
with him in this task of creating a high standard 
of American drama is Lawrence Langner, an 
authority on patent law whose business acumen has 
not dulled his zeal for the theatre. Langner 
comes from an old Jewish family and is a direct 
descendant of one of the Chief Rabbis of England. 
In this group also is Lee Simonson, who has 
startled the theatre-going public by his innovations 
in the art of stagecraft. 

Maurice Wertheim, banker and patron of the 
arts, and Otto Kahn, Maecenas of the group, 
have contributed to the material success upon 
which the artistic triumphs of the American drama 
have been based. 

One of the few real endeavors to create a 
native drama of satire has been done by a New 
York group called the Forty-Niners, of whom 
the majority were Jewish. It was an attempt to 


The Jews in the Making of America 151 

improve upon the banalities that very often pass 
as humor on the vaudeville stage. A series of 
brilliant sketches was staged in 1922 at the Punch 
and Judy theatre where the sophisticated in the 
American theatrical world gathered to be amused 
and enlightened. The group contained the cream 
of the New York literati, Heywood Broun, 
George S. Kaufman, Marc Connelly, Morris Rys- 
kind, Dorothy Parker, Montague Glass, Franklin 
P. Adams, Walt Kuhn, Bertram Block, Robert 
Benchley. Of this group but three are non-Jews. 
What the future work of this group will be is still 
unknown. It nevertheless represents a gathering 
of forces which augurs well for the American 
theatre. 

No story of the Jew on the American Stage is 
complete without mention of the Yiddish Art 
Theatre. Here we have a group of players differ¬ 
ent from all other dramatic organizations. It is 
a repertoire company which is unlike the average 
stock company. The latter discards its plays at 
the week’s end. The Yiddish Art Group, how¬ 
ever, repeats its plays as the Metropolitan Opera 
Company repeats its performances. It has estab¬ 
lished an extremely high standard of dramatic art 
and has been hailed by Kenneth McGowan, the 
eminent dramatic critic, “as the nearest approach 
to the Moscow Art Theatre.” Though the actors 


152 The Jews in the Making of America 

speak in the Yiddish language, they have attracted 
a number of non-Jews who are frequent attend¬ 
ants at the performances. One play, “Anathema,” 
was transferred from the stage of the Yiddish Art 
Theatre to Broadway at the request of important 
figures in the New York dramatic world. During 
the four years of its existence, the Yiddish Art 
Theatre has produced no less than seventy plays, 
some of them ranking among the best of the 
world’s dramas. There have been presented plays 
from the pens of Andreyev, Asch, Gorky, Haupt¬ 
mann, Hirschbein, Ibsen, Shaw, Shakespeare and 
Pinski, while at the same time a helping hand has 
been extended for the production of plays of new 
and promising Yiddish playwrights. From its 
midst has come the well-known actor, Jacob Ben 
Ami, who was introduced to the American stage by 
Arthur Hopkins. At present the Yiddish Art 
Theatre is under the management of Maurice 
Swartz, who is himself an actor of unusual dis¬ 
tinction. 

In the realm of dramatic criticism, the Jew is 
by no means idle. Here, too, the critical acumen 
of the race and its capacity for analysis have en¬ 
abled them to make no small contribution to 
American criticism. George Jean Nathan (born 
at Fort Wayne, Ind., 1882) is one of the best 
known of these. He is the enfant terrible of 


The Jews in the Making of America 153 


American dramatic criticism. He has dealt heavy- 
blows at the smugness and provincialism of the 
American stage. He is acquainted thoroughly 
with the dramatic literature of the leading Euro¬ 
pean countries. This knowledge has greatly aided 
him in raising a vociferous war whoop against the 
artificiality, cheapness, and tawdriness of some 
of the stuff that passes for drama. He is an acrid 
and aggressive controversialist, gifted with a sense 
of irony and bitter humor which makes him the 
bug-a-boo of his intellectual opponents. 

From 1908 to 1924 he was the dramatic critic 
and co-editor of the Smart Set . He has also con¬ 
tributed articles on the drama to a syndicate of 
newspapers. He has written one play, “The 
Eternal Mystery,” which has been produced on 
the Broadway stage. Among his more important 
works are “Another Book on the Theatre,” 
“Bottoms Up,” “Comedians All,” “The Popular 
Theatre.” 

Another of the Jewish figures in the world of 
criticism is Ludwig Lewisohn (born in Berlin, 
1882). Lewisohn came to America in 1890 and 
underwent a series of experiences that are related 
in his remarkable autobiography, “Upstream.” 
He lacks the bitter humor and the ironic gifts of 
Nathan but compensates for these by a more bal¬ 
anced and beautiful style and a more judicious 


154 The Jews in the Making of America 

view of things than is possessed by his colleague. 
He, too, has plowed deep into European litera¬ 
ture, and is particularly authoritative in the realm 
of German drama. Since 1919 he has been the 
dramatic critic of The Nation. Among his 
works are “German Style,” “The Modern 
Drama,” “Poets of Modern France.” He was 
also the translator and editor of the dramatic 
works of Gerhard Hauptmann in seven volumes. 

While these two writers are the outstanding 
figures among the critics of Jewish birth and per¬ 
haps of the whole American theatre, there are 
others who have made interesting and valuable 
contributions to the American drama. 

Montrose Moses (born in New York, 1878) 
has written a number of volumes on the theatre. 
He was formerly the dramatic critic of the Inde¬ 
pendent and at present is a prolific contributor to 
various magazines. While possessing neither the 
cleverness of Nathan nor the stylistic beauty of 
Lewisohn, he has a sober, reliable and penetrating 
power of observation. He has to his credit the 
following works, among others, “Francesco De 
Rimini,” “Henrik Ibsen, the Man and his Plays,” 
“The Literature of the South,” “The American 
Dramatist,” “Maurice Maeterlinck, A Study.” 

Alan Dale (Alfred J. Cohen) was born in Birm¬ 
ingham, England, 1861. He has been associated 


The Jews in the Making of America 155 

with several metropolitan newspapers and at 
present is the critic of the New York American. 
Alan Dale, however, is not simply a critic. His 
activity extends to the creative realm, and he has 
written a number of plays which have been pro¬ 
duced. He is the author of “Jonathan’s Home,” 
“A Marriage Below Zero,” “My Footlight Hus¬ 
band.” 

In fact, the Jew does not lag behind in the 
writing of plays; in this aspect of the American 
drama, he has a long history. The story of Jewish 
playwrights in America extends over a century. At 
the early beginnings of the American National 
drama it was a Jew that stood out as its foremost 
playwright. 

Mordecai Manuel Noah was born in Philadel¬ 
phia in 1786. By his eloquence and wit he soon 
won for himself a place in American politics and 
drama. In 1810 he became the Editor of the 
Charleston Gazette and later, during the adminis¬ 
tration of President Monroe, he was appointed to 
the position of Consul in Tunis. Upon his return 
he devoted himself to literature, and the theatre. 
His plays were uniformly successful. He was the 
author of the “Wandering Boys,” “The Grecian 
Captive,” “The Fortress of Sorrento,” “The New 
Constitution,” and a number of other plays. Ac¬ 
cording to George P. Morris, the editor of one of 


156 The Jews in the Making of America 

the earliest literary journals in New York, Noah 
told the best story, rounded the best sentence and 
wrote the best play of all his contemporaries. 

There were other Jewish playwrights in that 
early period of the American Stage. Samuel B. 
H. Judah came of an old colonial family that set¬ 
tled in New York in 1725. The father of Judah 
was one of New York’s prominent merchants and 
the founder in 1786 of the “New York Tontine.” 

Judah began writing in 1820 and among his 
plays might be mentioned “The Mountain Tor¬ 
rent,” “The Rose of Aragon,” and the “Tale of 
Lexington.” 

A colleague of his was Jonas B. Phillips, a ver¬ 
satile young Jew who was at one time Assistant 
District Attorney in New York City. He first 
appears in connection with the drama in 1833. In 
1838 he wrote “Cold Stricken.” Other plays of 
his were “Camillus” and the “Evil Eye.” The 
latter particularly was a great success. It was 
produced at the Bowery Theatre, where it won 
the approbation of the theatre goers of that day. 
In 1835 he was given a complimentary benefit as 
a token of the esteem in which he was held by his 
contemporaries. 

The newer crop of dramatists is of course more 
numerous and more prolific. They touch upon all 
phases of human life and belong to the various 


The Jews in the Making of America 157 

schools of dramatic writing. There was Charles 
Klein, who wrote plays of politics and finance, 
there is Montague Glass, with his humor and at 
times superficial characterization of Ghetto types, 
the creator of the Potash and Perlmutter stories. 
There is the youthful Elmer Rice, varying from 
the sensational drama “On Trial” to the expres- 
sionistic drama, produced by the Theatre Guild, 
entitled “The Adding Machine.” There is Arthur 
Richman with his keen study of the American girl 
entitled “Ambush” and also several other plays. 
Aaron Hoffman has treated of many subjects, 
while Louis Kaufman Anspacher has treated of 
social themes, his most notable work being “The 
Unchastened Woman.” 

Ben Hecht has tried his hand at the drama. 
Two plays of the Yiddish playwright Pinski have 
been produced on the English stage, “The 
Treasure” and the “Idle Inn.” “The Bronx Ex¬ 
press,” by Ossip Dimow, moved from the Yiddish 
Art Theatre to the regular stage. Louis Shipman 
and Abraham Shomer have written for Broadway, 
while Belasco has among his endless worries found 
time to write several plays of his own. Jules 
Eckert Goodman has delighted American aud¬ 
iences time and time again. 

Though the dramatic tradition among Jews is 
comparatively young, nevertheless the people of 


158 The Jews in the Making of America 

Rachel and Sarah Bernhardt have done conspicu¬ 
ous service. There is David Warfield who has 
starred in “The Music Master,” “The Return of 
Peter Grimm,” “The Auctioneer,” and a host of 
other plays. He played the role of Shylock in 
that splendid production of the “Merchant of 
Venice” placed upon the stage by Belasco. There 
is Jacob Ben Ami, drafted from the Yiddish stage, 
and both Schildkrauts, Joseph and Rudolph, Louis 
Wohlheim, Barney Bernard, Louis Fields, Harry 
Green, Louis Mann, Kenneth McKenna (Leo 
Mielziner, Jr.) and Robert Warwick, — to men¬ 
tion only a few. 

The actresses are numberless, Alla Nazimova, 
Florence Reed, Vivienne Segal, Bertha Kalisch, 
Celia Adler, Constance Collier, Olga Nethersole, 
Bertha Broad, Lina Abarbanel, Fannie Brice, Nan 
Halperin, Francine Larrimore (Adler), Clara 
Lipman, Fania Marinoff. Among comedians, A 1 
Jolson, Eddie Cantor and Ed Wynn (Israel Leo¬ 
pold) are in the front rank. The extent to which 
Jews have become members of the theatrical pro¬ 
fession may be gathered from the fact that A 1 
Jolson, in conjunction with Houdini, the great 
magician, have organized the unique “Rabbis’ 
Sons Theatrical Benevolent Association” to which 
only the sons of Jewish synagogal functionaries 
are eligible. 


The Jews in the Making of America 159 

In the realm of the screen, the Jew has had a 
romantic history. His appearance dates from its 
earliest beginnings and since that day, largely 
under his control, it has become a powerful factor 
in the life of the peoples of the world. Originally 
confined to some obscure hall, admission to which 
necessitated the possession of a nickel and in which 
the program consisted of a few ancient one-reel 
pictures, the producer of the silent drama has, 
within a decade, made it the powerful rival of a 
centuries old institution like the legitimate theatre. 
The factor that raised it to its present status was 
not simply the commercial urge; it took a sweeping 
imagination and comprehensive far-sightedness 
to lift it from irrelevancy to the position it occu¬ 
pies today. And the most remarkable fact about 
its vast growth is that the organizing powers and 
prophetic vision came not from regular captains 
of industry or from men who had won their spurs 
in the economic life, but rather from a number of 
hitherto obscure Jews engaged in the daily strug¬ 
gle for existence. The humble origin of the 
leaders of the motion picture industry is to their 
credit; it is a remarkable testimony to native 
powers of organization and ability which, given 
the opportunity to expand, flourish and fructify. 

The motion picture being still in its compara¬ 
tive infancy, it is only now, after its material ex- 


160 The Jews in the Making of America 

pansion has taken place, beginning to establish it¬ 
self on a higher aesthetic and artistic plane. The 
services of the best of contemporary novelists 
have been called in; and all the devices that 
modern stagecraft has invented are being utilized 
for its artistic enhancement. Popular taste must 
be catered to if any material foundation is to be 
preserved for the art of the motion picture, and 
its crudeness is to be attributed chiefly to this 
cause. As it is, the linking of the motion picture 
with the literary and artistic world is being di¬ 
rected and guided by one of the chief Jews in the 
realm of the screen, Adolph Zukor. 

It is Zukor who is the most vigorous and able 
of this group of Jews which direct the destinies of 
the motion pictures. Born in Hungary of poor 
parentage in 1873, he came to the United States in 
1888. In New York he attended the night schools 
after laborious hours of work. At first engaged 
in the hardware business, he drifted into uphol¬ 
stering, then into the fur industry. Finally he 
associated himself with Marcus Loew in the 
theatre, where he began to display those powers 
of organization and foresight that enthroned him 
in his place of supremacy. 

He is the founder of the Famous Players-Lasky 
and several other motion picture corporations. It 
was Zukor who called the first general conference 


The Jews in the Making of America 161 

of eminent authors to discuss means for the artis¬ 
tic betterment of the screen, and at present he is 
lending his efforts to mobilizing the literary and 
artistic elite of the country for co-operation in 
moving picture production. 

Another of these young immigrants who have 
found their way to fame via the route of the 
screen is Samuel Goldwyn (Goldfish). Born in 
Warsaw in 1882 he came to America in 1896, 
where, like Zukor, he received a supplementary 
education in the night schools. Later he drifted 
into the motion pictures and founded the Goldwyn 
Pictures Corporation, one of the most powerful 
of existing producing companies. Goldwyn has 
taken particular efforts to enlist in the services of 
the silent drama the great opera stars, and both 
Mary Garden and Geraldine Farrar have through 
his efforts participated in productions for the 
silver sheet. 

Jesse Lasky, born in San Francisco in 1880, is 
the last of the “Big Three” of the industry. 
Lasky has had a varied career, serving as a re¬ 
porter, a gold prospector, a band leader, and a 
theatrical manager. Finally he began to show 
great initiative in the motion pictures and has 
since the organization of the Jesse L. Lasky Cor¬ 
poration become one of the dominant figures. 

There are in addition a number of other man- 


1 62 The Jews in the Making of America 

agers, Carl Laemmle, Sol Lesser, Joseph Schenckj, 
Marcus Loew, William Fox, William Schulberg 
are but a few who have followed in the wake 
of the pioneers and established the industry so 
that today it gives employment to countless thou¬ 
sands and serves to drive away the hours of dull¬ 
ness and boredom from the millions of people 
throughout the world. It represents an outlay of 
$500,000,000, while the annual turnover is more 
than a billion. There are also a number of stars 
who are of Jewish descent. Carmel Meyers, the 
daughter of a Rabbi, Pola Negri (Pauline 
Schwartz), Joseph Schildkraut, Dore Davidson, 
Louis Wolheim, Vera Gordon are but a few of 
them. 


CHAPTER IX 


IN AMERICAN LITERATURE 

Only within the past decade or two have Jewish 
nhmes begun to figure prominently in American 
Literature. But with their advent has come a 
recognizably new force in the moulding and the 
making of the American literary tradition. The 
tendency for innovation and renovation, those re¬ 
sults which follow inevitably upon the penetration 
of the Jew into the various realms of human en¬ 
deavor, has become visible here as elsewhere. 
Gertrude Stein, a Jewess, is prominent in the mod¬ 
ern school of impressionism and expressionism, 
while Waldo Frank, Ben Hecht, Maxwell Boden- 
heim and other young Jews are ceaselessly ham¬ 
mering at the English language in order to create 
new images, new modes of expression and new 
and unusual phrases. 

Ben Hecht, one of the younger American novel¬ 
ists, has written several notable volumes. “Erik 
Dorn”, and “Gargoyles” are among his most pop¬ 
ular works. The latter is a particularly note- 
163 


164 The Jews in the Making of America 

worthy contribution in which he demonstrates the 
great disparity between the real emotions of peo¬ 
ple and their pretences. Of his work the eminent 
literary critic, H. L. Mencken, wrote: “There are 
passages of superb descriptive writing—stuff in¬ 
finitely beyond the talents or even the imagination 
of the average American novelist. Hecht differs 
from the general run, indeed, precisely because he 
knows how to write.” 

Waldo Frank has also distinguished himself in 
fiction. He is not only a novelist but a critic. Be¬ 
sides novels like “Rabab”, “The Dark Mother”, 
etc., he has written “Our America”, a brilliant 
analysis of the state of American culture. He con¬ 
tributes extensively to current periodicals. 

Another novelist of no mean calibre is Edna 
Ferber, author of the Emma McChesney stories, 
“Gigolo”, “The Girls”, “Fanny Herself”, and a 
host of short stories that have delighted millions 
of American readers. 

John Cournos, author of “The Mask”, “The 
Wall”, “Babel”, is a Russian immigrant who has 
spent a number of years in America and who now 
spends his time alternately in England and Amer¬ 
ica. He has written a more or less autobiographi¬ 
cal trilogy in which there are mirrored the de¬ 
fects and triumphs of a young artistic nomad. 


The Jews in the Making of America 165 

Fanny Hurst is perhaps the highest salaried 
writer in America. Besides “Humoresque”, she 
has written a large number of short stories and 
has portrayed vividly Jewish types that have 
hitherto been buried behind Ghetto walls. 

Rita Weiman is another talented contributor to 
American literature. She received her artistic 
training in Paris and has devoted herself to vari¬ 
ous forms of writing. She is a highly competent 
journalist, a dramatist who has seen a number of 
her plays produced in the Broadway theatres and 
a writer of innumerable short stories. 

Thyra Samter Winslow, whose most notable 
work is “Picture Frames”, is still a comparatively 
young author. She has an uncanny acquaintance 
with rural American types which predominate in 
the stories she has written. 

Anzia Yezierska, author of “Hungry Hearts”, 
“Salome of the Tenements, etc., is a young Rus¬ 
sian Jewish immigrant who with amazing rapidity 
has made herself a master of the language. Miss 
Yezierska worked her way from the sweatshop to 
a well established place in the American literary 
world. 

Rose Gollup Cohen has to her credit a career 
strikingly akin to that of Miss Yezierska. She, 
too, is an immigrant girl, having arrived in Amer- 


166 The Jews in the Making of America 

ica at the age of twelve. She worked fourteen 
hours a day in sweatshops until the age of seven¬ 
teen, when she went to the hospital to recover her 
health. Here she stayed three months and learned 
to read English from the Bible. Her “Out of the 
Shadow” is an autobiographical narrative, replete 
with human interest. This volume has been trans¬ 
lated into French and Danish. Her second volume 
is entitled the “Voice of the Sod”. 

Mary Antin has won fame with “The Promised 
Land”. 

Joseph Anthony (Rosenblatt) is the author of 
two novels “Rekindled Fires”, and “The Gang”. 

One of the most significant of the Jewish Amer¬ 
ican novelists is Abraham Cohan, whose “Rise of 
David Levinsky” and “The White Terror and 
the Red” are in some respects real works of art. 

There are also a number of other Jewish novel¬ 
ists,—Sydney Nyburg, Octavus Roy Cohen, Elias 
Tobenkin, Ezra Brudno, Robert Simon, Viola 
Brothers Shore, Herman Bernstein, Robert 
Nathan, Maurice Samuel, author of “The Out¬ 
sider”, “Whatever Gods”, etc. 

In the field of literary criticism, Albert Mor- 
dell, Isaac Goldberg and Joel Springarn play 
prominent roles. Mordell is the author of “Shift¬ 
ing Literary Values”, “The Literature of Ecstacy”, 
“The Erotic Motive in Literature”, etc. Mordell 


The Jews in the Making of America 167 

is essentially an exponent of modernism in the 
literature of today. It was of his work “Dante 
And Other Waning Classics” that George Bran- 
des, the world’s greatest literary critic, wrote “If 
I had originally any scruples against your funda¬ 
mental ideas, these scruples completely ceased 
when I thoroughly examined the execution of your 
plan. Now I am of your opinion. It is necessary 
to say once for all that these books of the past no 
longer conform to our intellectual needs. You 
have had the courage to say so frankly. Even if 
they attack it at present, in the near future, and 
not at all in the distant future, they will be grate¬ 
ful to you for having said it.” 

Isaac Goldberg is a versatile and erudite trans¬ 
lator as well as a critic of importance. He has 
translated twenty-seven plays from the Yiddish, 
including “The Idle Inn”, which was presented on 
the Broadway stage. He has in addition trans¬ 
lated the gems of the contemporary Italian Thea¬ 
tre. Goldberg’s linguistic capacity is most appar¬ 
ent in his translations from foreign fiction. He 
has translated works from the French, the Span¬ 
ish, the Portuguese, Yiddish, and the Italian. 

He has written two important books on South 
American literature and a particularly valuable 
work, on the “Drama of Transition”. In this 
volume he treats learnedly yet cleverly of the 


168 The Jews in the Making of America 

dramatic tendencies in Spain, Italy, France, Ger¬ 
many, Russia, South America and the Yiddish 
World. 

In the realm of the short story Jewish writers 
have been particularly prolific. Not only has the 
quantity been large but the quality has been of 
the highest. In the collection entitled, the “Best 
Short Stories of 1922” which contains twenty 
short stories, the Jews have a disproportionate 
representation. Seven of those who had the honor 
of being named as the best short story writers of 
the year were Jews. They were Konrad Berko- 
vici, David Freedman, Benjamin Rosenblatt, 
James Oppenheim, Waldo Frank, Ben Hecht and 
Rose G. Cohen. This collection of the outstand¬ 
ing literary creations of the year are made an¬ 
nually by Edward O’Brien, the literary critic, and 
in each volume the Jews show a relatively high 
percentage. 

If we turn to another phase of literature in 
America, the sphere of poetry, Jewish names of 
importance immediately come to mind. There 
is the much discussed question whether the Jew in 
American poetry brings as his contribution some¬ 
thing that is distinctly Jewish, whether the same 
spirit of a people that gave mankind its religious 
poetry, still lives on in its descendants today. The 
Oriental imagery of the psalmists of Judea seems 


The Jews in the Making of America 169 

to crop out more frequently in Jewish poets than 
in non-Jewish poets. Similarly, there is more ego- 
centricity in their contributions than in those of 
their colleagues. Irony and richness of phraseol¬ 
ogy, associated intimately with the conception of 
Hebrew contribution to literature, is also more ap¬ 
parent in the Jewish poets. There are of course 
Jewish bards that do not differ at all from the 
others, they belong to the same schools, use the 
same methods, and fight the same poetical battles. 
Nevertheless, one must conclude from a survey of 
contemporary American poetry that the gen¬ 
eral Hebraic characteristics of self absorption, 
Heineesque irony and vivid imagery are manifest 
to a greater degree among the Oppenheims and 
Untermeyers than among the Benets or the Amy 
Lowells. 

The earliest of the Jewish writers of poetry 
was Emma Lazarus, the friend of Emerson and 
a member of an old Jewish family. During her 
career, unfortunately cut short, she made a num¬ 
ber of excellent contributions to American poetry. 
Some of her lines have been engraved on the 
Statue of Liberty which stands at the entrance to 
New York Harbor. Towards the end of her 
life she became intensely race-conscious, due 
largely to the sufferings of the Jews in Russia. 
At the height of the period of her race-conscious- 


170 The Jews in the Making of America 


ness she wrote the “Songs of a Semite”, full of 
the fire of an ancient Deborah. 

The list of contemporary Jewish poets in Amer¬ 
ica is too long to enumerate. Recently the band 
of Jewish poets has become numerous. We will 
mention only a few of them. One of the foremost 
is Louis Untermeyer, who takes high rank both 
as a poet and as a critic. He demonstrates the 
unique duality of the Jew, for he is not only a 
successful poet but also a successful jewelry mer¬ 
chant. His work on the new American poetry is 
the standard volume on the subject, while in his 
latest volume, “Roast Leviathan,” he demon¬ 
strates his unusual cleverness. His “Challenge” 
has gone through five editions. He has, in addi¬ 
tion, translated the works of Heine into excellent 
English. 

His wife, Jean Starr Untermeyer, is also a 
writer of clever poetry. Her recent volume is 
entitled “Growing Pains.” 

The Biblical strain is at times visible in the 
poetry of James Oppenheim. Among his works 
are “Songs for the New Age”, “War and Laugh¬ 
ter”, “Book of Self”, etc. The freedom of men 
engages his pen as it did the pens of his ancestors. 
In one striking passage he brings forcefully home 
the message of mankind’s salvation and freedom, 


The Jews in the Making of America 171 

that theme on which so many fervent Jewish 
tongues have spoken: 


They set the slave free, striking off his chains, 
Then he was as much a slave as ever, 

He was still chained to servility, 

He was still manacled to indolence and sloth, 

He was still bound by fear and superstition, 

By ignorance, suspicion and slavery. 

His slavery was not in the chain 
But in himself. 

They can only set free men free, 

And there is no need of that, 

Free men set themselves free. 

Arthur Guiterman, born of American parents 
in Vienna, fifty-two years ago, is one of the most 
active writers of contemporary verse. He does not 
confine himself simply to one kind of poetical writ¬ 
ing, he is equally at home in writing a humorous 
quip, a sombre sonnet or a lyrical poem. Among 
other things he has originated the widely imitated 
rhymed reviews. An outstanding characteristic 
of his works is his love of nature. 

After centuries of confinement behind the 
Ghetto walls, the Jew is stepping forth again to 
behold Nature, in all its beauty and to sing of its 


172 The Jews in the Making of America 

wonders. In him the love of the ancient Judean 
for his hills revives. 

I never loved your plains, 

Your gentle valleys, 

Your drowsy country lanes, 

And pleached alleys. 

I want my hills! the trail 
That scorns the hollow, 

Up, up the ragged shale 
Where few will follow. 

Up over wooded crest 
And mossy boulder, 

With strong thigh, heaving chest 
And swinging shoulder. 

So let me hold my own way 
By nothing halted 
Until, at close of day 
I stand exalted. 

In Alter Brody we have a young poet not yet 
thirty years of age, who has nevertheless estab¬ 
lished for himself a reputation among the poetical 
fraternity. 

Maxwell Bodenheim is a young Jew who is 
rapidly coming to the front among the younger 
generation of American poets. He possesses an 
unusual gift for characterization. He is not only 


The Jews in the Making of America 173 

a master of poetry but also of prose. Among his 
poetical volumes are “Minna and Myself”, “Ad¬ 
vice”. 

Jewish poetesses also are making themselves 
articulate in contemporary American verse. 
Babette Deutsch has won for herself an enviable 
reputation. Her best work is published in the 
volume entitled “Banners”. Her colleague, 
Florence Kiper, has also given to American poetry 
some valuable contributions. A poem of hers, 
entitled “A Jew to Jesus,” included in the anthol¬ 
ogy of the World’s Best Religious Poetry, is un¬ 
usually striking. 

O Man of my own people, I alone 
Among these alien people can know thy face, 

I who felt the kinship of our race 

Burn in me as I sit where they intone 

Thy praise—those who striving to make known 

A God of sacrifice have missed the grace 

Of thy sweet human meaning in its place, 

Thou who art of our blood bond and our own 
Are we not sharers of thy passion? Yea 
In spent anguish close by the side 
We drained the bitter cup and tortured, felt 
With the bruising of each heavy welt. 

In every land is our Gethsemane 
A thousand times have we been crucified. 

Samuel Roth, Elias Lieberman, Franklin P. 
Adams are known to many readers of recent 


174 The Jews in the Making of America 

verse. The latter is also one of the most success¬ 
ful columnists in America, the widely quoted 
F. P. A. who has made “The Conning Tower” an 
established institution in American journalism. 

A striking example of the versatility of the 
Jewish mind is shown in the work of Ezekiel 
Leavitt, who has written original plays, poems, 
and essays in four different languages: Hebrew, 
Yiddish, Russian and English. 

Morris Ryskind is a master of clever quips. 
Oscar Williams, Michael Gold, Milton Raison, 
Samuel Hoffenstein, Joseph Auslander, Gustav 
Davidson, Martin Feinstein, and an army of poets 
of lesser renown, contribute continually to the 
various American periodicals. 

Simultaneously with the appearance of a host 
of Jewish writers in contemporary American liter¬ 
ature there has been developing within the past 
few decades a voluminous literature in the native 
Yiddish tongue of the Russo-Jewish immigrants. 
Yiddish itself has definitely passed the stage where 
the term jargon or dialect could be applied to it 
and has become an instrument for the creation 
of literary and cultural values. The Jews in this 
country have produced novelists, playwrights and 
poets of considerable power and ability. 

Abner Tannenbaum has translated into Yid¬ 
dish the best of the French and German novels 


The Jews in the Making of America 175 

while Philip Krantz has written extensively on the 
cultural history of mankind. Alexander Harkavy 
is a Yiddish encyclopaedist. Leon Kobrin, I. 
Opotashu, Alter Epstein, Ossip Dimow, B. Gorin, 
Israel Zevin, David Pinski, and a host of others 
fill the columns of the Yiddish Press with splendid 
short stories. But Sholom Asch perhaps is the 
outstanding Yiddish fiction writer. A number of 
his works have been translated into the European 
languages. 

The Yiddish language is becoming enriched 
with noble poetry. Morris Rosenfeld, one of the 
earliest of the Yiddish poets in America, achieved 
considerable fame by his “Songs of the Ghetto”. 
His works have been translated into English, 
German, Polish, Roumanian and Bohemian. The 
chief theme of his poetry is the misery of the toil¬ 
ing masses in the sweatshops where he spent a 
portion of his life as a tailor. Occasionally he 
bursts into a more joyous song and voices the 
hopes of his people for their national redemption. 

Rose Pastor Stokes’ translation of his “Songs 
of the Ghetto” introduced him to the English 
reading public, and upon its appearance he was in¬ 
vited to give readings before several important 
American universities. Rosenfeld died in 1922. 

The greatest living Yiddish poet is Solomon 
Bloomgarden (Yehoash). The tragedies of life 


176 The Jews in the Making of America 


are not the chief themes of his poetry as they are 
of Rosenfeld’s. He sings rather of Jewish na¬ 
tional hopes, of love and joy. He has done not¬ 
able service in translating Longfellow’s “Hiawa¬ 
tha” into Yiddish, and he has also made the first 
translation of the Bible into Yiddish. His 
“Gesammelte Lieder” (Collected Songs) and “In 
Sun un Nebel” (Through Sunshine and Mist) are 
his outstanding original literary creations. 

In addition to these, there are a great many 
younger poets who are molding the Yiddish lan¬ 
guage into a thing of beauty. They are free ex¬ 
perimenters, they are often daring in their 
thought, and their poetic gift is genuine. They 
are bound to exert a salutary influence on the cul¬ 
tural life of America. 

The Yiddish drama has developed considerably 
within the past few decades. Its father was Abra¬ 
ham Goldfaden, who gave it some of its best 
pieces. Jacob Gordin introduced into it the prob¬ 
lem play, the psychological play and the realistic 
drama, and in general raised it to a modern posi¬ 
tion. Z. Libin and I. Kobrin have followed in his 
footsteps. Among the most important contemp¬ 
orary Yiddish dramatists in America are David 
Pinski, Perez Hirshbein, and Sholom Asch, whose 
works have been translated into English and pro¬ 
duced on the American stage. 


The Jews in the Making of America 177 

In the realm of book production also the Jew 
plays an important role. Here as everywhere, he 
is the innovator, the initiator, the one who hews 
the new pathways and exploits the fields hitherto 
neglected. It is only within the last decade or 
two that the Jews have assumed an important role 
in book publishing, and their rise has been facili¬ 
tated by the creation of a reading public recruited 
from the second generation of Jews. A large 
number of new writers have come into the field 
and the dissemination of their works has been due 
not only to the disproportionate number of Jewish 
readers of high-class literature but also to the 
Jewish publishers ever on the alert for promising 
youth. 

Among these new Jewish publishers are Alfred 
A. Knopf, Albert and Charles Boni, B. W. 
Huebsch, Horace Liveright, Nicholas L. Brown, 
Thomas Seltzer and Henry T. Schnittkind. To 
Alfred A. Knopf belongs the credit of bringing 
out the works of writers who are of the utmost 
importance in American literature. Joseph 
Hergesheimer and H. L. Mencken are both en¬ 
rolled under his Borzoi banner. Floyd Dell, Carl 
Van Vechten and others owe the publication of 
their works to the indefatigable Knopf. A large 
number of translations from Russian works have 


178 The Jews in the Making of America 

also found their way into American homes 
through his instrumentality. 

Two of the most daring and successful ventures 
in American publishing have been made possible 
almost entirely by Jews. Mr. Boni, of Boni and 
Liveright, was instrumental in the creation of the 
Modern Library series which has placed at mod¬ 
erate prices the greatest masterpieces of world 
literature in thousands of American libraries. 

A large number of Jewish authors have found 
in the Modern Library the means for the publica¬ 
tion of their works. Dr. Sigmund Freud, the 
psycho-analyst, Maxwell Bodenheimm, John 
Cournos, Ben Hecht, Anzia Yezierska, Ludwig 
Lewisohn, Waldo Frank, Conrad Berkovici all 
have done work for the house of Boni and Live- 
right. 

What Boni and Liveright have made possible 
for the more prosperous portion of the American 
reading public has been repeated on a vaster scale 
by E. Haldeman-Julius. Due to his initiative, 
hundreds of concise booklets, embodying the es¬ 
sence of human literary efforts since the days of 
early Greece and early Judea, have been made 
accessible to the public. Millions of copies sold 
for a nominal price have been disposed of within 
the space of a few years and countless American 


The Jews in the Making of America 179 

homes have been put in contact with the finest lit¬ 
erature. 

Nicholas L. Brown, who introduced the Swed¬ 
ish writer, Strindberg, to the American public, is 
a Russian Jewish immigrant who came to this 
country at the age of nineteen. He also made 
Panzini, the Italian novelist, known to America. 
His Sea Gull Library, a series of books on belles- 
lettres and consisting of translations of European 
masterpieces never before published in English, 
is considered a fine example of the art of book¬ 
making. 

The career of a Russian Jewish immigrant 
achieving a place of prominence in the publishing 
world is duplicated by Thomas Seltzer, who came 
to America at the age of eleven, cut buttonholes, 
worked his way through the University of Penn¬ 
sylvania and then entered the publishing business. 
A miscellaneous array of books has been put upon 
the market through his efforts. Among the most 
notable ones have been the works of D. H. Law¬ 
rence, one of the foremost of the younger British 
novelists. 

Benjamin Huebsch is not the least active in this 
group of Jewish publishers. A native New Yorker, 
he first displayed a decided bent for music but 
later turned his attention to the art of printing. 
His father, who had been a rabbi, had inculcated 


180 The Jews in the Making of America 

in his son a love of learning and a knowledge of 
books, qualifications that aided him in the pub¬ 
lishing world. The first authors whose works he 
published were two of the greatest living German 
writers, Hauptmann and Suderman. Huebsch also 
entered the periodical publishing field, by founding 
the Freeman, a weekly of exceedingly high liter¬ 
ary value and importance. 

Among Jewish publishing companies that have 
done important work may be mentioned The 
Stratford Company . This company introduced 
for the first time to the American public a number 
of foreign masterpieces, the most important being 
a novel from the Japanese, The Heart of Nami- 
San y by Kenjiro Tokutomi. The Stratford Jour¬ 
nal, founded by this company and edited by Dr. 
Henry T. Schnittkind and Dr. Isaac Goldberg, 
was instrumental in first introducing to American 
readers such writers as Giovanni Papini, Knut 
Hamsun, Jacinto Benavente, and a number of 
other famous writers of foreign countries. 

It is Brentano’s however, that is the best known 
among the Jewish publishing houses. Here the 
w T orld-wide perspective of the Jew becomes mani¬ 
fest. Brentano’s is practically the headquarters in 
America for the sale of European literature, it is 
the link in the literary world between Europe and 


The Jews in the Making of America 181 

America. With the increasing years, it has at¬ 
tained a solidity and stability that have given it 
a universal reputation. 

As one surveys the activities of these Jew¬ 
ish publishers, one becomes impressed with the 
truth of Romain Rolland’s characterization of 
the Jews. Travelling here and there, he re¬ 
marks,—“They carry with them the ‘pollen of 
thought’ ”. It is they who have made known 
and are making known to the Americans, large 
portions of the literature and culture of other 
peoples. It is they who stand foremost in the 
translation and dissemination of the works of 
European authors. They act the role of inter¬ 
mediaries and interpreters linking nation and na¬ 
tion, and bringing to one the understanding of 
the other. Retaining the cosmopolitanism and 
linguistic capacities of the nomad, they unite the 
dwellers of the earth, and by the widening of the 
national horizon they disperse the fogs of provin¬ 
cialism that hamper the progress of a people. 


CHAPTER X 


IN AMERICAN MUSIC AND ART 

“I once took a friend of mine to a concert in 
Carnegie Hall,” writes Henry T. Finck, the musi¬ 
cal critic of the New York Evening Post . “He 
looked around at the audience, scanned their faces 
and then asked me, ‘Where do the Christians 
sit’ ?” This question could be levelled at the music 
lover not only in the metropolis but also in the 
other large cities of the country. That the Jews 
will support every musical venture and encourage 
budding talent is taken for granted by every man¬ 
ager of performing artists. 

Nor is the love of the race for music a newly 
born phenomenon. In ancient Israel the bards 
not only sang but also played. The Jew expressed 
his emotions through the harp and the cymbals 
long before the light of civilization had dawned 
over Europe. Throughout the centuries the Jew 
found his chief solace in the synagogue, and in 
its music. He acquired his critical capacity and his 
love for the art by constant attendance at the 
182 


The Jews in the Making of America 183 

house of worship, where the cantor held forth be¬ 
fore a sympathetic audience. Music was made 
part of the ritual; it was interwoven into the very 
essence of his religious life. Music, the most sub¬ 
jective of all arts, finds its greatest number of 
practitioners and its most ardent devotees among 
the Jews, the most subjective of all races. 

It has been estimated that out of every twelve 
musical artists, vocalists, violinists and conductors, 
eight are descendants of the people of Israel. 
Among the violinists particularly the proportion 
is overwhelming. The most remarkable thing 
about this dominion of the musical world by tal¬ 
ented Jews is that the place of origin of most of 
these Jewish musicians is in Eastern Europe. 

Mischa Elman is, perhaps, the master of them 
all. Born in a Russian Ghetto, thirty years ago, 
he displayed his genius at the early age of four. 
He attracted the attention of the great music 
teachers of Europe and soon Leopold Auer, the 
spiritual father of many virtuosos, took him under 
his wing. Permission was secured from the Czar 
that the young Mischa be allowed to attend the 
Petrograd Conservatory. Here he perfected his 
art and in 1904 he made his debut. Since then he 
has covered the whole world in the course of his 
musical peregrinations. Countless thousands 
throughout the civilized globe have paid tribute 


184 The Jews in the Making of America 

to this outstanding product of a dismal poverty- 
stricken town in the Russian Ghetto. 

Efrem Zimbalist also is a product of the Rus¬ 
sian Ghetto and is the husband of Alma Gluck, 
the well known operatic singer. He is a violinist 
of the first rank. Nevertheless he had sufficient 
time to develop scholarly capacities. He is the 
author of a book on the theory and practice of 
violin playing and an authority on the history of 
music. 

Jascha Heifetz is still in his early twenties, yet 
he has been before the public for more than a 
decade. He attained national prominence at the 
age of ten by his remarkable playing. There are 
a legion of other virtuosi. David Hochstein, one 
of the most promising of the younger violinists, 
was killed by a German bullet while fighting in the 
Argonne. Fritz Kreisler, Max Bendix, Yoscha 
Seidel, Leo Ornstein, Max Rosen, Mitmitzky, are 
but a few of the many who entertain and move 
multitudes of music lovers, and who have helped 
to establish what Henry Finck calls “the predomi¬ 
nance of Jews in the musical world.” 

Leo Ornstein, born in Russia in 1895, ls one °f 
the more brilliant of the group of Jewish pianists. 
He is an experimenter in new forms of musical art, 
an exponent of the modern futuristic movement. 
Among the music-loving public ever alert for the 


The Jews in the Making of America 185 

novel and unusual he has created for himself a 
substantial reputation. 

Writing, in impressionistic style, of Ornstein’s 
music, in his brilliant work “Our America,” 
Waldo Frank says: “It is the full throated cry of 
the young Jew in the young world. Background 
of the old passion of storm and repression. But 
upon it breaks of fire, interstices of light, 
America’s release. The weight of sorrow of the 
Jew like a loading atmosphere about him. And 
the Jew’s intricate response, reasoning and wail¬ 
ing. The birth of faith, the tidal energy in faith. 
New hope, new deed, new life. An answer to the 
lamentation of the Jewish fate in Ornstein’s music; 
a sort of angry joy, lust of a new conquest, Hebrew 
the seed, American the fruit.” 

Paul Rosenfeld, born in New York in 1890, is 
one of the new generation of musical critics. It 
was he who first introduced Ornstein to America. 
He has written voluminously on the subject of 
musical criticism. His contributions have appeared 
in the New Republic y The Dial, and other maga¬ 
zines of an equally high calibre. 

Jews are performers, conductors, managers and 
constitute a large proportion of the audiences. 
Among orchestra leaders, the Jew is in the front 
rank. There is Wille Mengelburg, the great com¬ 
poser from Holland who is said to be so orthodox 


186 The Jews in the Making of America 

in his religious views that he does not play on 
Saturday. There is Arthur Bodzansky and Joseph 
Stransky. Walter Damrosch is at the head of the 
New York Symphony, while Leopold Stokowski 
is head of the Philadelphia Symphony. Nicolai 
Sokoloff is Cleveland’s banner bearer and Fred¬ 
erick Stock performs the same role for Chicago. 
In Choral Society work Kurt Schindler, the head 
of the Schola Cantorum, is pre-eminent. To take 
away the Jews from the musical life would leave 
most of the big orchestras in America leaderless. 

Among pianists also, the Jews do not lag be¬ 
hind. They fill the concert halls as do their col¬ 
leagues with their violins. Joseph Hoffman and 
Leopold Godowsky are perhaps the best known of 
the pianists performing in America. There are 
Joseph Lhevinne, Alfred Marovitch, Ignatz 
Friedman and a host of minor luminaries in the 
musical firmament. 

Facilities for the improvement of the musical 
taste of the masses have more than once been 
created under the inspiration and with the aid of 
Jewish men and women. The Lewisohn Stadium, 
attached to the College of the City of New York, 
was created as a result of the benefaction of the 
great philanthropist', Adolph Lewisohn. Here, 
during the summer months of the past few years, 
the best performing artists in the country have 


The Jews in the Making of America 187 

displayed their talent before admiring audiences 
ranging from 8,000 to 15,000. The prices for 
admission here are far below commensurate per¬ 
formances given in the ordinary concert halls. A 
recent editorial in the New York Evening Post 
says: 

With Sunday evening’s concert on the Mall in Central 
Park, will end what is probably the best season this coun¬ 
try has ever had of free orchestral music. Sixty concerts 
have been given by the Goldman Band in the past twelve 
weeks, and they have been free not only to their hearers 
but to the taxpayers. This has been the sixth season of the 
Goldman Band Concerts, but the first in a city park. 
Before this year the concerts were given on the Green at 
Columbia University. A committee of nearly 100 public 
spirited citizens with Mrs. Daniel Guggenheim as Chair¬ 
man have made these concerts possible. Through the good 
offices of Philip Berolzheimer, City Chamberlain, accom¬ 
modation in Central Park was secured when building ex¬ 
pansion made the Columbia grounds no longer available. 
Mr. Elkan Naumburg is now financing the construction 
of a new bandstand on the Mall as a present to the City. 
To Edwin Franko Goldman, the originator of free con¬ 
certs and conductor of the band on the Mall, more than a 
million people are indebted for a summer of pleasure and 
instruction. 

It is interesting to note that every single name 
mentioned in the above editorial is Jewish. 

This zeal for music does not cease with the 
passing of the summer. In winter there are also 


188 The Jews in the Making of America 

free concerts. For a number of years under the 
auspices of an energetic young Jew, Charles D. 
Isaacson, a number of free concerts have been 
given. First in conjunction with the New York 
Globe, then with the Evening Mail, Mr. Isaac¬ 
son has preached the gospel of a refined musical 
taste to countless thousands in innumerable places. 

Nor do the efforts for the elevation of the level 
of musical and artistic sensibilities of the people 
stop here. Perhaps the most effective instruments 
in that direction have been created in the shape of 
the new type of motion picture houses which have 
sprung up within recent years. These theatres, 
like the Rialto and the Rivoli in New York, com¬ 
bine within themselves the function of opera 
house, concert hall and moving picture theatre. 
Attached to them is a well drilled orchestra of 
sixty to seventy pieces. Operatic selections and 
ballet performances also form part of the pro¬ 
gram. 

This type of theatre has been originated by S. L. 
Rothapfel and Hugo Riesenfeld, and the extent of 
their value may be gauged from the fact that Eng¬ 
land and the Continent are beginning to follow 
suit. 

Opera in America was considerably improved 
by a Jew, Oscar Hammerstein. Born in Berlin in 
1848, he emigrated to America at the early age of 


The Jews in the Making of America 189 

fifteen. Like Samuel Gompers he began his career 
in the new country by becoming a cigar maker. 
After working at that trade for several years he 
turned to journalism and became the editor of the 
United States Tobacco Journal. His inventive 
faculty manifested itself in the creation of cigar 
making machinery which has, to a certain degree, 
revolutionized the industry. Later he returned 
his attention to the theatrical and operatic world. 
He built and managed a number of New York 
theatres, such as the Criterion, the Belasco, the 
Olympia. Particularly noticeable, however, was 
his Manhattan Opera House where some of the 
best opera ever seen in America was performed. 
Since his day art has made gigantic strides and 
with the co-operation of Otto Kahn, New York 
has become the operatic center of the world. 

Nevertheless, American Opera has as yet little 
native color and originality. It subsists largely on 
the importations from abroad, importations of 
both artists and pieces. The movement for the 
creation of a native American opera is still in its 
infancy, but here the work of another Jew, Max 
Rabinoff, is making strides. At Stony Point, New 
York, where the historic battle for American 
political independence was fought, there is being 
created an institution that may ultimately achieve 
for America its operatic independence. Ameri- 


190 The Jews in the Making of America 


can artists, American musicians, American com¬ 
posers are being mobilized and trained under the 
auspices of Rabinoff for that purpose. 

There are other Jews who have attained promi¬ 
nence in the operatic world. There are the two 
Aborns, Milton and Sargent, who have produced 
opera for a number of years in America. There 
is Erich Korngold, a twenty-five year old Viennese 
Jew now resident in America who has already seen 
“Die Todte Stadt,” an opera of his, produced 
several years ago on the stage and who, if his first 
work is any augury, will create lasting values for 
American Opera. 

Among composers Rubin Goldmark has a high 
place. Ernest Bloch has a number of musical 
works to his credit. Among vocalists of the 
highest order are Rosa Raisa and her husband, 
Giacomo Rimini. Sophie Breslau and Alma 
Gluck represent Jewish femininity upon the 
American operatic stage and have charmed multi¬ 
tudes in the course of their careers. 

Ever alive to the needs of the general public, the 
Jew has been instrumental in catering to popular 
demands. The songs that the millions hum and 
sing and that catch the fancy of the multitudes 
from Maine to California are in many cases the 
productions of young Jews. With a catchy 
melody, a happy phrase, a fetching tune they set 


The Jews in the Making of America 19i 

all America agog for a short period. Irving Ber¬ 
lin has risen to fame and fortune on the tide of 
popular approval. Leo Feist, Jerome D. Kern, 
Albert Von Tilzer, Shapiro and Bernstein, are 
names known to the members of every household 
that possesses a piano. 

In a sphere of art in which so many Jewish per¬ 
formers appear, it is almost inevitable that the 
organization and management should be largely 
in Jewish hands. Perhaps the most successful and 
dynamic administrator is Solomon Hurok, who 
like many other Jews, rose from the humblest cir¬ 
cumstances to a dominating role in the world of 
music. Born thirty-five years ago in the town of 
Polgar in Russia, he came to America at the age 
of fifteen. He commenced his career in the new 
land by peddling packets of pins and needles in the 
Ghetto of New York. This occupation proving 
neither congenial nor remunerative, he decided to 
ascend the economic scale. He became a bottle 
washer in a cellar where he worked twelve to four¬ 
teen hours each day. Then he drifted to a spring 
bed factory. Here his labor brought the munifi¬ 
cent return of three dollars per week. Finally he 
became manager of an automobile accessory com¬ 
pany where for the first time he met the violinist 
Efrem Zimbalist who interested him in musical 
management. 


192 The Jews in the Making of America 

Since then, he has become one of the most suc¬ 
cessful managers of musical and terpsichorean 
celebrities in America. Pavlowa and her Ballet 
Russe, Schuman-Heink, the Russian Grand Opera 
Company, Isadora Duncan, the dancer, Feodor 
Chaliapin and a host of other internationally 
known artists have performed under the auspices 
of the tireless Hurok. 

In the plastic arts there is a large Jewish repre¬ 
sentation. The biblical injunction against the 
making of graven images did not tend to atrophy 
the artistic powers of the Jews. On the contrary, 
when a departure from the traditional attitude 
was effected, they brought forth a host of unex¬ 
pected creations. There is none in America to 
vie with such Jewish painters as Israels of Hol¬ 
land, or with such sculptors as Antokolsky of 
Russia. Nevertheless there has been growing 
within the past few decades a corps of Jewish men 
of talent who are enriching the art treasures of 
contemporary America. 

Perhaps the earliest and the greatest of the 
Jewish sculptors in America was Sir Moses Eze¬ 
kiel. Born in Richmond in 1844, he served as a 
soldier in the Confederate army. After hostilities 
had ended he repaired to Berlin where he entered 
the Academy of Fine Arts. The following year 
the Franco-Prussian war broke out, and Ezekiel 


The Jews in the Making of America 193 

utilized this opportunity to become the war cor¬ 
respondent of the New York Herald. Later he 
repaired to Rome where he seriously devoted him¬ 
self to his cherished art. Here he won immortal 
fame and the friendship of the royal family of 
Italy. His first great work was the execution of 
statuary commemorating religious liberty in the 
United States. This, perhaps his greatest master¬ 
piece, was unveiled at the Philadelphia Centennial 
Exhibition in 1876. Later he executed a bronze 
statue of Jefferson, who had always been his fav¬ 
orite hero. This statue of Jefferson was modelled 
at the express request of the citizens of Louis¬ 
ville, Kentucky. A replica of this work was later 
placed at the front entrance of the University of 
Virginia, which was founded by the greatest of 
American democrats. He fashioned a number of 
other pieces of sculpture, his famous bust of the 
musician Liszt being among them. After his 
death his remains, brought back to America, were 
interred in the Arlington National Cemetery. 
This was a signal distinction, indeed, for he was 
one of the very few civilians ever thus honored. 

There are a number of others. Perhaps the 
best known American sculptors today are Jo 
Davidson and Jacob Epstein. Davidson has to his 
credit the busts of the leading literary and politi¬ 
cal lights of the day. Anatole France and Ignace 


194 The Jews in the Making of America 

Paderewski have, among others, sat for him. He 
has completed the task of commemorating the 
world war in sculpture. His great statue to the 
American soldiers has recently been unveiled in the 
cemetery of Surennes, France. 

Jacob Epstein, who now lives in England, was 
born in the East Side of New York. His figure of 
Christ was the sensation of the artistic world, 
arousing a flood of comment favorable and ad¬ 
verse. Victor D. Brenner was the designer of 
the Lincoln penny. Among other sculptors may 
be named Jules Leon Butensky, Ephram Kaiser, 
and Alexandre Zeitlin. 

Among the painters the Jewish representation 
is large, including such men as Hugo Ballin, A. S. 
Baylinson, Secretary of the Independent Artists 
Association, Horace Brodzky, William Auerbach 
Levy, William Meirowitz, Leo Mielziner, Jerome 
Myles, Abraham Walkowitz and John Wenger. 
Mr. Wenger has done exceptional work in the 
realm of stage settings and is among the most 
active of those contributing to the aesthetic im¬ 
provement of the Broadway productions. A num¬ 
ber of these artists belong to the so-called insur¬ 
gent wing and are continually experimenting in 
the new forms of artistic creations. 

But the children of Israel are not only creative, 
they are also critical. The greatest American 


The Jews in the Making of America 195 

authority on Italian art is a Russian Jew, Bern- 
hard Berensohn. George Heilman and Louis 
Weinberg have written extensively on various 
phases of art criticism. A most dynamic figure 
in the world of American art is Alfred Streglitz, 
who while not a creative artist himself, has at his 
studio, the famous “291” Fifth Avenue, gathered 
about himself the most promising painters of the 
day. To them he has extended the aid and the 
sympathy so necessary to their work. His studio 
has served as the place where struggling and 
hitherto unrecognized painters first exhibited their 
work to a critical public. 

Art dealing has always been, to a certain extent, 
in Jewish hands. Duveen’s is perhaps the largest 
of the international houses dealing in art. Rosen- 
bach’s of Philadelphia has been instrumental in 
securing for American art a number of priceless 
treasures which had hitherto found a place of rest 
in London. Louis W. Ehrich is another who is 
widely known among the art dealers. Among 
cartoonists may be found “Rube” Goldberg, the 
inexhaustible fountain of humor and satire, Harry 
Hershfield, Bert Levy, Maurice Becker, Hy 
Mayers and a number of others. 


CHAPTER XI 

IN SCIENCE AND THE PROFESSIONS 

The modern world of science is not a new thing 
for the Jew; he enters it with a long established 
tradition dating from the time when he in com¬ 
pany with the Arab stood in the forefront of medi¬ 
aeval civilization. “The Hebrew works of mediae¬ 
val antiquity,” writes Scott in the third volume of 
his “History of the Moorish Empire in Europe”, 
“contain the germs of scientific discoveries which 
modern pride is pleased to designate as of com¬ 
parative recent origin. In the Zohar, . . . the 
globular form of the earth, its diurnal revolution 
on its axis, the varying phases of that planet, the 
difference in the length of day and night at the 
equator and the poles, . . . are all described with 
an accuracy which is wonderful when the general 
ignorance of the epoch during which these opin¬ 
ions, so far in advance of the time, were promul¬ 
gated, is remembered. In the thirteenth century 
Jedediah-ben-Abraham, of Beziers, advanced the 
hypothesis that all objects impelled in opposite 
directions, and undisturbed by other forces, move 
196 


The Jews in the Making of America 197 

in straight lines,—the essential element of one of 
the laws now universally recognized as governing 
the motions of the heavenly bodies. Solomon- 
ben-Virga, a Spanish refugee, in his historical 
treatise, Sebeth-Jehuda, . . . states that the 
earth, equally attracted by the surrounding stars, 
remains suspended in the midst of space, an un¬ 
mistakable conception of the principle of gravity 
which antedates its republication in Europe by 
more than a hundred years. The philosophical 
truths just enumerated, which anticipate the im¬ 
portant discoveries of Boerhaave, Lavater, 
Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, afford a suggestive 
idea of the attainments of the rabbis, the accuracy 
of their reasoning, and the extent and profundity 
of their scientific knowledge.” 

In medicine particularly has the Jew created 
for himself a place of prominence, continuing the 
reputation he achieved for himself in the mediae¬ 
val ages, when sons of the covenant ministered 
to the physical ailments of reigning sovereigns and 
popes. Dr. Simon Flexner stands at the directing 
helm of the Rockefeller Foundation. Dr. Harry 
Plotz has discovered a combative factor against 
the ravages of typhus. Dr. Casimir Funk has 
elaborated the theory of vitamines, which is the 
basis of modern dietetics. Dr. Abraham Jacobi 
stood at the forefront of the American medical 


198 The Jews in the Making of America 

profession for about half a century. The famous 
Shick test is the discovery of a Jew. Interarvin, 
the artificial fat used as a remedy for diabetes, 
is the work of Dr. Abraham Kahn, a Russian 
Jewish immigrant. A device against tetanus and 
a new method for treating ailments of the 
pharynx are credited to Dr. Samuel Meltzer. Dr. 
Maurice Fishberg is the editor of the Journal of 
the American Medical Association, a voluminous 
writer on all phases of medicine and a co-author 
of the “Handbook of Therapy.” T. B. Sachs is 
president of the National Association for the 
Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis. Dr. Albert 
Abrams has discovered the electronic rays which 
have been hailed by his followers as the most re¬ 
markable cure of recent years. Dr. Abraham A. 
Brill is one of the leading psycho-analysts of 
America and has applied the methods of Dr. Sig¬ 
mund Freud of Vienna to mental ailments. Dr. 
Harry Friedenwald is an eye specialist of note 
connected with Johns Hopkins University. 

The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Re¬ 
search has within the past years become one of 
the most potent factors for the alleviation of 
human suffering. Of the six or seven men who 
direct its destinies and who are known wherever 
the study of medicine is pursued, three are of the 
Jewish race. The guiding genius is Dr. Simon 


The Jews in the Making of America 199 

Flexner, generally recognized as the world’s 
greatest pathologist. Associated with him is Pro¬ 
fessor Jacques Loeb. The latter has been the 
occupant of the Chair of Physiology at the Uni¬ 
versity of Chicago. Later he was called to the 
same position in the University of California. 
Since 1910 he has been the head of the Depart¬ 
ment of Experimental Biology of the Institute. 
Here most of his discoveries have been made. He 
has been the recipient of numerous honorary de¬ 
grees here and abroad. He is a member of the 
scientific and philosophic academies and societies 
of most of the countries of Europe. For years he 
has been recognized as the world’s greatest living 
biologist, and despite his sixty odd years is doing 
valuable work on behalf of the sacred cause of 
science. Dr. Louis Levine is also affiliated with 
the same institution and for a number of years has 
been the head of its Department of Chemistry. 

Professor Lafayette B. Mendel is professor of 
Physiological Chemistry at Yale University. He 
was made a member of the National Academy of 
Sciences for his researches in the chemistry of 
digestion, metabolism and nutrition. He has also 
done extensive work in the investigation of vita- 
mines and their relationship to the human body. 
Dr. Joseph Goldberger of the United States 
Health Service has done pioneer work in the in- 


200 The Jews in the Making of America 

vestigation of pellagra which is prevalent in the 
southern sections of the country. Much of what is 
known today about this loathsome disease has been 
discovered as the result of Dr. Goldberger’s re¬ 
searches. Professor Milton Rosenau, Professor 
of Preventive Medicine at Harvard, is an author¬ 
ity on bacteriology and public health, while Dr. 
Emanuel Libman is recognized to be the best 
diagnostician in New York City, with the possible 
exception of Dr. Evan Evans. 

The second generation of young Jews and Jew¬ 
esses have furnished a disproportionate number of 
the school teachers in the larger cities of the coun¬ 
try. Despite the low remuneration in the profes¬ 
sion the number is continually increasing. The 
vast majority of course remain as teachers, but a 
more active minority enters the profession for the 
large amount of leisure and the opportunities ob¬ 
tainable for further study. In New York City 
the two main institutions for the preparation of 
teachers for the public schools, the College of the 
City of New York and Hunter College, have an 
overwhelming majority of Jewish students. 

Commenting on a recent examination for public 
school teachers, the New York Sun remarked ed¬ 
itorially that “the majority of more than good 
names on the list are Jewish and more especially 
of those receiving the highest mark for proficiency 


The Jews in the Making of America 201 

in the examinations.” The first woman to be ap¬ 
pointed teacher in the Indian schools was Miss 
Ray Maslon, who ranked first in the examination 
given by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. 

Though the Jews encounter some difficulty in 
the securing of instructorships and professorships 
in the colleges and universities, noticeable prog¬ 
ress has been made despite all handicaps. A Jew¬ 
ish instructor or professor usually must be much 
better than his non-Jewish rival to secure a posi¬ 
tion. Columbia, Yale and Harvard have repre¬ 
sentatives of the race, while a larger number of 
Jews are found in various academic positions in 
a host of other universities, from Ann Arbor to 
George Washington University. 

A young Russian Jew, Henry M. Sheffer, is a 
lecturer on philosophy at Harvard, while another 
Russian Jew, Isidore Levin, was one of the young¬ 
est men appointed to a university professorship. 
At present Professor Levin is a member of the 
Faculty of Law at the University of Detroit. 

Professor Taussig, the leading American au¬ 
thority on the tariff, occupies the Chair of Econ¬ 
omics at Harvard. Solomon Blum, Edwin R. A. 
Seligman, and Jacob Hollander, are also authori¬ 
ties upon economics. Professor Seligman, profes¬ 
sor at Columbia, is a member of the famous Selig¬ 
man family of New York, and is the author of the 


202 The Jews in the Making of America 

“Principles of Economics,” “Economic Interpre¬ 
tation of History,” and a number of other works 
on economic problems. Professor Isaac A. Hour- 
wich, formerly connected with the faculty of Chi¬ 
cago University, is author of the brilliant volume 
“Labor and Immigration.” 

One of America’s leading physicists is Professor 
Albert Michelson, President of the American 
Academy of Science and winner of the Nobel prize 
for physics in 1907. Born in Germany in 1852, 
he came to America as a child and received his 
preliminary education in the New York Public 
Schools. In 1873 he was appointed to the United 
States Naval Academy as a midshipman. After 
his graduation he was retained as an instructor 
of physics and chemistry. The University of 
Chicago then called him to its service. Michael- 
son has achieved a remarkable degree of accuracy 
in his measurements. He has applied the methods 
of light interference to numerous delicate phys¬ 
ical measurements of lengths and angles. He de¬ 
termined the standards of lengths used by the 
government of France and measured the gigantic 
star Betelgeuse. In 1915, by utilizing his methods 
of accurate measurements, he ruled 120,000 per¬ 
fectly straight and parallel lines on a piece of 
metal six by three inches. 

Two of the leading American anthropologists 


The Jews in the Making of America 203 

are Professors Goldenweiser and Boaz, both of 
whom have done pioneer work in the discrediting 
of the theory of superior races. Among psycholo¬ 
gists, Professor Joseph Jastrow, Dr. Abraham A. 
Brill, and Boris Sidis are pre-eminent. Dr. Brill 
is perhaps the foremost American psycho-analyst, 
while Boris Sidis was an authority on abnormal 
psychology. The late Professor Abraham Jas¬ 
trow was an Orientalist and the greatest American 
authority on Babylonian civilization. Professor 
Richard Gottheil is the occupant of the Chair of 
Oriental Studies at Columbia University. 

Professor Julius Drachsler, formerly connected 
with Smith College, now with the College of the 
City of New York, is an authority on sociology 
and the author of “Assimilation and Democracy.” 
Harold Jacoby is professor of astronomy at 
Columbia University, while Jacob Salwyn Shapiro 
is the author of a widely read text on modern 
history and occupies the Chair of History at the 
College of the City of New York. 

Among American authorities on philosophy 
there is a liberal representation of Jews, the most 
brilliant among them being Professor Morris R. 
Cohen of the College of the City of New York 
and Horace Meyer Kallen, formerly connected 
with the University of Wisconsin and now a mem¬ 
ber of the staff of the New School of Social 


204 The Jews in the Making of America 

Research. Professor Kallen is the author of a 
number of books on philosophic and political sub¬ 
jects, among them being “James and Bergson,” 
“The League of Nations, Today and Tomorrow,” 
“Zionism and World Politics.” Leo Weiner is 
professor of Slavonic languages at Harvard, be¬ 
sides being an authoritative writer on anthro¬ 
pology and kindred subjects. 

Professor Leo Sharfman has written an author¬ 
itative treatise on American railways while Mr. 
Zon has done much to enrich our knowledge of 
the timber resources of the world. “The World’s 
Sugar Production and Consumption,” the best ex¬ 
position of the international sugar industry, is the 
work of Maurice Jacobson. Dr. I. M. Rubinow’s 
“Social Insurance” is an important contribution 
to the literature on social improvement. Elisha 
Friedman is the author of a number of volumes 
on international reconstruction and kindred sub¬ 
jects. 

The temperament of the Jew is not simply ar¬ 
tistic. Jewish scientists have contributed liberally 
to the enrichment of learning. The calculating 
mind of the Jew, raised to a higher cultural level, 
becomes creative in a most prolific fashion in 
every branch of scientific knowledge. 

The greatest Jewish inventor of his day was 
Charles Proteus Steinmetz. Born in Breslau fifty- 


The Jews in the Making of America 205 

seven years ago, he studied in the universities of 
the fatherland until he was expelled for his radical 
opinions. From 1893 he was consulting engineer 
of the General Electric Company. He was the 
wizard of the electrical world and besides was 
recognized as a mathematician and a philosopher. 

Emil Berliner is the inventor of the telephone 
transmitter, the disc gramophone record and a 
host of other devices. In conjunction with his 
son, Henry, who is twenty-six years of age, he has 
invented the helicopter, a flying machine that rises 
perpendicularly, dispensing with the need of 
trundling along the ground. 

It is in radio, however, that one finds most 
easily a number of Jews of importance. The Vice- 
President and the General Manager of the Radio 
Corporation of America, the combination of the 
American Radio Corporation and the Marconi 
Company, is a young Russian Jew, thirty-two 
years of age, David Sarnoff. The career of 
Sarnoff is reminiscent of an Alger story book. 
Brought over as a child by his parents fleeing from 
the scourge of the Czar, he sold Yiddish papers 
on the streets of the New York Ghetto. Together, 
with the remuneration obtained by singing in the 
choir of a synagogue, he managed to keep body 
and soul together. Later he became a messenger 
boy for a telegraph company. Discharged for ab- 


206 The Jews in the Making of America 

senting himself during a Jewish religious festival, 
he secured a position as a radio operator. By dint 
of hard study in leisure hours he became indis¬ 
pensable to his employers and soon rose to be the 
directing genius of the entire organization and 
has among other things given a position to the 
man who discharged him from his messenger boy 
duties. Sarnoff has perfected an instrument for 
the sending of radio messages from moving trains. 
Some years ago, a delegation of Russian Engineers 
came to the American Radio Corporation for a 
demonstration of this new invention. Sarnoff 
consulted with the delegation on a moving tr^in, 
and dispatched a message for the benefit of the 
visitors. The message ran, “If the Russian Gov¬ 
ernment had not driven Jews from its borders, 
Russian Engineers would not have been compelled 
to come to America to learn of this new inven¬ 
tion.” 

Fritz Lowenstein is the inventor of the famous 
wireless switch wave. He has perfected numer¬ 
ous devices which have been adopted by the navy. 
During the course of his adventurous career, he 
became the partner of Niklas Tesla, the great en¬ 
gineer, and helped the latter in the materializa¬ 
tion of his plans. 

Joseph R. Freed, still in his twenties, was sum¬ 
moned from his studies at college to fill the posi- 


The Jews in the Making of America 207 

tion of expert radio aide at Washington. Here 
he designed apparatus for government use. Freed 
has been responsible to a certain extent for the 
popularization of radio. He is one of the heads 
of the Eisman Radio Corporation, one of the 
more prominent organizations in the radio world. 

Dr. Louis Cohen, together with Major Man- 
borgne of the signal corps, invented the means for 
eliminating the static buzzing and crackling which 
has robbed radio of much of its pleasure. Dr. 
Cohen is connected with the faculty of the George 
Washington University. Dr. Arthur Korn in¬ 
vented a new method to transmit photographs by 
radio. 

Turning to other fields of invention we find that 
Jewish ingenuity is continually manifesting itself. 
Despite popular belief, the Singer Machine is not 
a Jewish invention, nevertheless some of the im¬ 
provements made upon the original are to be 
credited to the Jews. They have added to it the 
“pleater,” the “shuttle,” and the “sharrer” 
(mover) which increases considerably its speed 
and reliability. “They have also,” according to 
Dr. Raisin, in his survey of the Russian Jew, “pro¬ 
duced several devices for manufacturing cigarette 
mouth pieces and the stuffing of tobacco, some of 
which are now used by the American Tobacco 
Company. A number of Russian Jews have dis- 


208 The Jews in the Making of America 

tinguished themselves in the world of invention. 
Abraham Ragorodsky made important improve¬ 
ments in the aeroplane. Professor Rosanoff, of 
Clark University, was for a time research assist¬ 
ant to Edison. Isaac H. Levin has perfected a 
process for producing artificial gems and invented 
an oxy-hydrogen cell which goes by his name.” 

Leon M. Moisseiff is one of the country’s most 
prominent engineers. He is the designer of the 
Manhattan Bridge, the Wiliamsburg Bridge, and 
the Queensboro Bridge. The construction of 
these gigantic bridges which link the various parts 
of the city into one integral unit has been done 
under the supervision of this brilliant Russian Jew. 
He has recently been entrusted with the respon¬ 
sible task of designing and building the Interstate 
Bridge across the Delaware connecting Philadel¬ 
phia and Camden, N. J. 

Professor Moses Gomberg, of the University 
of Michigan, is a high authority on chemistry. 
His work on trivalent carbon bids fair to revolu¬ 
tionize organic chemistry. Julius Oscar Stieglitz 
is Director of the Department of Chemistry at 
the University of Chicago. His book on Qualita¬ 
tive Chemistry is the standard volume on the sub¬ 
ject and it is from him that thousands of chemical 
students from Maine to California have gained 
their knowledge. 


The Jews in the Making of America 209 

Law has a particular appeal for the race. The 
analytical mind of the Jew, his love for argument, 
his capacity to pick so easily the flaws in an oppo¬ 
nent’s reasoning, make him a formidable opponent 
in the courtroom. The generations of his fore¬ 
fathers, who have for centuries argued about all 
the subtleties of the Talmud, have transmitted 
to him characteristics that are of utmost value to 
those who figure in legal battles. It is a profes¬ 
sion which is truly congenial to the mentality of 
the race. The youngest woman to be admitted 
to practice in the State of Indiana was Miss Jessie 
Levy, the youngest lawyer ever raised to the bench 
was L. A. Snitkin. There is no city in the country 
which does not boast its quota of Jewish lawyers, 
many of whom have risen to the bench for the 
dispensing of justice. Justice Brandeis of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, Samuel 
Untermeyer, Louis Marshall, Justice Irving 
Lehman of New York, Judge Hugo Pam of Chi¬ 
cago, Max Steuer, Judge David A. Lourie, Justice 
Wasservogel, Judge Joseph Proskauer, Judge 
Julian Mack, Judge Aaron J. Levy, and a host of 
others have demonstrated the talent of the Jew 
for the courtroom and the forum. 


CHAPTER XII 

IN PUBLIC AND RELIGIOUS LIFE 

Isolated for centuries from a civilization by the 
side of which he existed, but in which he did not 
live, the Jew has developed an intellect that is de¬ 
tached and objective. He is free both from the 
virtues and from the vices of the mind that be¬ 
lieves that conformity to the past is more import¬ 
ant than an improvement of it. The bonds of 
tradition weigh but lightly upon him. The span 
of time that has elapsed since his full entry into 
society has been insufficient to allow his mind to 
crystallize and harden. Hence it is that the Jew 
stands forth as a protagonist of the ideal that the 
ways of the fathers were not made to be followed#-' 
but rather to be improved upon, that he becomes 
the apostle of constructive change, and of benefi¬ 
cent modification. He is the innovator and the- 
experimenter, par excellence. 

In political alignment the Jew is to be found 
occasionally on the right, more often in the center, 
and now and then, on the left. American liber¬ 
alism has for him an irresistible appeal and he has 
210 


The Jews in the Making of America 21 i 

brought to its service all his tradional intensity and 
intellectual powers. One of the most brilliant 
idealogues of political liberalism and one of the 
most penetrating critics of the social and political 
life of America is Walter Lippman, the former 
editor of the New Republic, an important organ 
of the so called “intellectuals.” 

Walter Lippman was born in New York in 
1889. After receiving an education in the public 
and high schools he went to Harvard where he 
was graduated in 1910. During the war he was 
secretary of the organization directed by Colonel 
House to prepare data for the Peace Conference. 
He has been a prolific contributor to American 
periodicals and is at present associated with the 
New York World . He is an active member of 
the “American Academy of Social and Political 
Science” and of the “American Economic Associa¬ 
tion for Labor Legislation.” His most note¬ 
worthy works are “A Preface to Politics,” “Drift 
and Mastery,” “Stakes of Diplomacy,” “The 
Political Scene,” “Public Opinion.” Associated 
with his New Republic group are a number of 
other Jewish writers: Leo Wolman, Professor 
Frankfurter, Horace Kallen, Morris R. Cohen 
and Louis Untermeyer have added their contribu¬ 
tions to its incisive columns. Walter E. Weyl 
(died 1919) was a prolific writer on the subject of 


212 The Jews in the Making of America 

political liberalism. He was the author of “The 
New Democracy,” “Tired Radicals,” “The Great 
Peace,” etc. 

Louis D. Brandeis, whom Norman Hapgood, 
the publicist, has called “one of the four brainiest 
men in America,” is an outstanding figure in the 
economic life of the country. A native of Louis¬ 
ville, where he was born in 1865, he later moved 
to Boston. Here he became known as “The 
“People’s Lawyer,” because of his advocacy of 
welfare legislation. He fought the transportation 
monopoly of the railroad oligarchy that was domi¬ 
nant in the New Haven Railroad. The Boston 
municipal subway system owes its preservation, to 
a large extent, to his efforts. Brandeis was also 
the people’s counsel in the proceedings involving 
the constitutionality of the Oregon and Illinois 
women’s ten hour law, the Ohio nine hour law 
and the Oregon minimum wage law. In these 
cases he revolutionized the method of argument 
by substituting a statement of contemporary in¬ 
dustrial conditions for an appeal to hoary prece¬ 
dent. He was also chairman of the Arbitration 
Board of the New York Garment Workers. He 
has written extensively on political and economic 
subjects as well as on Zionism. His two most 
important works are “Other People’s Money,” 
and “Business — a Profession.” 


The Jews in the Making of America 213 

This tendency for improvement, of which the 
Jew is an ardent exponent, embraces also the 
realm of prison reform. Adolph Lewisohn has 
been known for years as one of the guiding minds 
of the movement for a new orientation to the 
problem of penal institutions. Mr. Joseph Fish¬ 
man is the author of “Crucibles of Crimes,” per¬ 
haps the most stirring indictment of penal 
methods. For a number of years a government 
inspector of prisons, he has witnessed the horrors 
of our present system of prison administration 
and his book is a clarion call for a new method 
and a new policy. Frank Tannenbaum, a young 
Russian Jew, is also awakening the public mind. 
In the Atlantic Monthly he has again and 
again urged the necessity for a revision of prison 
administration. 

In the field of industrial relations, the Jew has 
been the first to realize the ideal of the superiority 
of law over combat. A most interesting contribu¬ 
tion to the methods of solution of trade disagree¬ 
ments has been introduced by Jewish workers. 
The clothing strike in 1910 was ended largely 
through the efforts of Louis D. Brandeis. The 
disturbing question of the open shop was finally 
settled by a method which might well serve as a 
model for all other American industries afflicted 
with the same problem. The employers on the 


214 The Jews in the Making of America 

one hand were reluctant to bind themselves hand 
and foot by the closed shop, the union on the other 
was insistent on preserving the gains it had made. 
At this juncture the “preferential shop” was 
agreed upon and written into the protocol of 
peace. The workers were not subjected to the 
whims of the employer, nor was any necessary 
authority denied to the latter. “The preferen¬ 
tial shop idea,” says Professor Howard in the 
Hart, Schaffner and Marx Agreement, Chicago, 
,1920, p. 76, “is a compromise by which the 
greatest dangers and injustice of compulsory union 
membership are avoided and yet by which there is 
a distinct advantage to the union. Union mem¬ 
bers have a preference when new people are 
needed and when the force must be reduced they 
are retained in preference to others. Under this 
system, the danger of abuse of arbitrary powers 
by officials of the union as well as by employees 
is much reduced. Both must submit in equal de¬ 
gree to the board of arbitration and all their ac¬ 
tions may be reviewed by that body.” 

Socialism has claimed a number of devotees 
among the Jews. To a certain extent, however, 
it is a passing phase of the adjustment of the 
immigrant Jews to America, and as they ascend 
the economic scale and take advantage of Ameri¬ 
can opportunity, they relinquish their more ex- 


The Jews in the Making of America 215 

treme view of social problems. They have con¬ 
tributed, nevertheless, several theoreticians and 
leaders to the movement. Morris Hilquit is the 
author of several volumes defining the aims of the 
movement and co-author with Father Ryan of 
the Catholic University at Washington of the 
volume containing the debate “Socialism, Promise 
or Menace.” One of the two Socialists elected 
to Congress was Meyer London. Jacob Panken 
has been elected to the municipal bench on the 
lower East Side of New York and has the dis¬ 
tinction of being the only Socialist Judge in the 
country. 

A number of Jews have served in the halls of 
Congress. Julius Kahn has been chairman of the 
House committee on Military affairs while among 
the more prominent congressman of recent years 
may be mentioned Isaac Siegel, Nathan Perlman, 
Isaac Bacharach, Lester Volk, Henry M. Gold- 
fogle, Leon Sanders, Emanuel Celler, Samuel 
Dickstein and others. 

A number of individual Jews have participated 
in the movement for a greater democratic organi¬ 
zation of industry. Henry A. Dix, a wealthy man¬ 
ufacturer of women’s garments in New York City, 
has deliberatly turned over, with the assistance of 
his sons and heirs, a million dollar concern to his 
employees. Edward Hochhauser of the Altro 


216 The Jews in the Making of America 

Manufacturing Company has done pioneer work 
in the assistance of invalids. His factory is unique 
in that it gives employment to none save ex-tuber¬ 
culosis sufferers. Adequate provisions are made 
for the safeguarding of the health of the con¬ 
valescents. Located at the top of a loft building 
it is equipped with a kitchen, rest room, steamer 
chairs and much of the paraphernalia of a con¬ 
valescent institution. Food is served at cost price. 

The Weinstock-Lubin Company, of which 
David Lubin was one of the partners, has been 
reorganized on a completely democratic basis. 
In 1919 the Board of Directors recognized the 
right of employees to have a share in the manage¬ 
ment. Now it has become practically a co-opera¬ 
tive concern with the complete management vested 
in a Board of Directors chosen from the em¬ 
ployees. 

Other firms have followed in the pathway of 
the pioneers, who, to eliminate industrial conflicts, 
have reorganized their institutions. The Hart 
Schaffner Marx Company, the world’s largest 
manufacturers of clothing, have a managing com¬ 
mittee composed of representatives of the firm and 
delegates elected from the workers. The Sydney 
Blumenthal Company owners of the Shelton 
Looms, Shelton, Conn., have instituted an indus¬ 
trial democracy modelled on the American form 


The Jews in the Making of America 217 

of government. Delegates from the employees 
constitute a House of Representatives, the fore¬ 
men constitute a Senate, and the Cabinet consists 
of the managers. Measures concerning the wel¬ 
fare of the organization are discussed and passed 
by the three bodies. 

Meyer Bloomfield is a high authority on indus¬ 
trial relations and Miss Rose C. Feld has written 
an illuminating work on “Humanizing Industry.” 
Another authoritative writer on the subject of wel¬ 
fare and industry is Kee L. Frankel, who in con¬ 
junction with Alexander Fleisher, wrote the 
“Human Factor in Industry.” 

Frankel is a vice-president of the Metropolitan 
Life Insurance Company and has distinguished 
himself in welfare work. He is president of the 
American Public Health Association, the New 
York State Conference of Charities, etc. He has 
been influential in organizing the National Health 
Council. Recently he was invited by the Ameri¬ 
can government to draw up plans for welfare 
work among the 300,000 postal employees. 

The Federal Reserve System, an epoch making 
piece of financial legislation which stabilized the 
flow of money and reduced to a minimum the 
possibility of financial stringency, is the child of 
the brain of Paul Warburg. It has been called 
the greatest financial measure since the days of 


218 The Jews in the Making of America 


Alexander Hamilton. Warburg is associated 
with the house of Kuhn, Loeb & Company. He is 
Vice President of the Federal Advisory Council 
of the Federal Reserve Board, director of the 
National Employment Exchange, Treasurer of the 
Institute of Musical Art, and is active in a host of 
enterprises having philanthropic and cultural pur¬ 
poses. 

The reorganization of the Shipping Board has 
been the work of Albert Lasker of Chicago. 
Lasker was born in Texas in 1880. His father 
was a Confederate soldier who fought with the 
troops from his state throughout the war. Lasker 
is the sole owner of Lord and Thomas, among the 
largest of the country’s advertising concerns. He 
entered its employ at the wage of $10.00 per week 
and in a comparatively short time took over the 
entire business. He is one of the owners of the 
Chicago Cubs baseball team. Upon his sugges¬ 
tion, Judge Kenesaw M. Landis was made arbiter 
of the national sport. 

Effective work in the drafting of constructive 
measures of reform has been done by Samuel 
Untermeyer. Because of his manifold activities 
he has the unique honor of having a greater space 
allotted to him in “Who’s Who” than any other 
American. He has been an organizer of many of 
the large American corporations, yet has stood 


The Jews in the Making of America 219 

forth as an unsurpassed guardian of public weal. 
As counsel for the Pujo Committee in 1913, he 
laid bare the gigantic ramifications of the money 
trust which was gradually monopolizing the finan¬ 
cial sources of American industry and credit. 
Perhaps the highest paid counsel in the country, 
he has in 1922 given his services gratis for a 
period of months to the Lockwood Committee of 
the New York Legislature for the investigation of 
the housing situation. After sending to jail sev¬ 
eral of those responsible for conspiracy in the 
building trade he fathered the passage of remedial 
legislation. Upon his request the New York State 
Legislature amended the laws to allow insurance 
companies to loan money for construction pur¬ 
poses. One hundred million dollars was set aside 
to build homes for 45,000 families, with rental 
rates below those prevailing. His suggestion for 
arbitration schemes for the settlement of difficul¬ 
ties in the building trade was unanimously 
accepted. 

The Institute of Politics at Williamstown, 
Mass., which is becoming an international forum 
for the exchange of views on pressing public prob¬ 
lems, owes its existence to Bernard M. Baruch. 
Every summer representatives of the various 
countries gather to analyze the political and eco¬ 
nomic situation and to propound their views for 


220 The Jews in the Making of America 

its improvement. It has become a forum to which 
many intelligent Americans look for guidance and 
counsel. 

Baruch, who is a descendant of a revolutionary 
war family on his mother’s side, and the son of 
the famous physician, Dr. Simon Baruch, obtained 
his education at the City College of New York. 
For a number of years he has been a familiar 
figure in the financial world. The World War 
gave him an opportunity for service, in which he 
demonstrated his unusual capacities. Speaking 
of Baruch, the author of the famous work 
“Mirrors of Washington” writes: “Baruch and 
Hoover, alone of the business men who came to 
Washington during the war, achieved real suc¬ 
cesses in the highest positions, and Baruch showed 
vastly the greater capacity of the two to operate 
in a political atmosphere. A man who was nothing 
but a Wall Street speculator, not an industrial 
organizer, organized successfully the biggest in¬ 
dustrial combination the world has ever seen.” 

The cause of infant and child welfare has en¬ 
listed the services of a number of Jews and 
Jewesses. Perhaps the most important figure in 
child saving work is Lillian D. Wald, founder of 
the Henry Street Settlement. She organized dis¬ 
trict nursing work and also originated the idea 
of school nurses. This innovation was the first 


The Jews in the Making of America 221 

attempt in the world of the municipalization of 
school nursing. The idea of a Federal Children’s 
Bureau also owes its origin to the fertile mind of 
this outstanding social worker. Miss Wald was 
a member of the International Conference called 
by President Wilson in 1919. Despite her strenu¬ 
ous activity, she has found time to recount the 
story of her activity for the social welfare of the 
masses in a volume entitled “The House on Henry 
Street.” 

Equally interested in the cause of child saving 
is the veteran and beloved philanthropist Nathan 
Straus, who was voted by the populace of New 
York to be the most useful citizen of the metropo¬ 
lis. Born in 1848, he has a long record of philan¬ 
thropic deeds. In 1899 Nathan Straus originated 
and maintained at his own expense a laboratory 
and a system of distribution of pasteurized milk. 
Even previously to this, he had done meritorious 
work for the amelioration of the condition of the 
poor. In 1892 he originated and maintained a 
system for the distribution of coal to the poor. 
During the Spanish War he donated to the govern¬ 
ment an ice plant at Santiago, Cuba. Straus has 
been a delegate to the International Congress for 
the Protection of Infants, and also to the Tubercu¬ 
losis Congress. During 1914-15 he served 
1 > 1 35?73 1 meals at the minimum price of one cent 


222 The Jews in the Making of America 


from his numerous milk depots. This beloved 
Jewish philanthropist has during the past years 
expended more than his income on a vast net of 
philanthropic and charitable institutions, serving 
mankind regardless of creed or race. The prob¬ 
lem of pasteurized milk has particularly engaged 
the attention of Straus, and he has compiled an 
illustrated volume on “Disease in Milk — The 
Remedy, Pasteurization.” 

Louis Marshall, born in Syracuse in 1856, has 
a long record of public activity. Marshall has 
been a member of the Constitutional Conventions 
of the State of New York in 1890, 1894, 1915, 
being the first citizen to serve in three different 
conventions. He was appointed to serve as 
chairman of the New York State Immigration 
Commission by former Governor Hughes. Mar¬ 
shall is the generally recognized lay leader of 
American Jewry and in that capacity was exceed¬ 
ingly active in the movement for the abrogation 
of the treaty with Russia in 1913. He also 
assisted in settling the strike of the clothing 
workers and procured the enactment of legislation 
regulating private and foreign bankers. He is a 
trustee of Syracuse University and has presented 
to it a law library. He has filled a number of 
public offices among them being the presidency of 
the New York State College of Forestry and the 


The Jews in the Making of America 223 

Chairmanship of the Committee on the Amend¬ 
ment of Laws in the Bar Association of New 
York. Marshall has also been instrumental in 
leading the relief campaign which netted 
$60,000,000 for suffering Jews abroad. 

The Strauses, Rosenwalds, Warburgs and 
Schiffs are but the contemporary exponents of the 
old Jewish ideal of philanthropy. They continue 
a tradition which has been characteristic of the 
Jews since the growth of Jewish settlements in 
America and which has as its father in this country 
the famous Judah Touro, a post revolutionary 
war figure of great importance. 

Touro, who was one of the wealthy men of his 
day, was a noteworthy benefactor and patriot. 
The erection of the Bunker Hill monument in 
1821 was made possible, in a measure, through his 
gift of $10,000. He dispensed charity widely 
without regard to race or creed. When a Univer- 
salist Congregation in New Orleans was sold at 
auction because of the foreclosure of the mort¬ 
gage, Touro bought the mortgage and made a gift 
of it to the church. After his death, his will dis¬ 
posed of a half million dollars for charitable pur¬ 
poses, an enormous sum for those days. 

The American Red Cross, which has since its 
inception been the means for a vast amount of 
beneficent activity owes its inception, to a large 


224 The Jews in the Making of America 

extent, to Adolphus S. Solomon. In conjunction 
with Clara Barton he laid its foundation stones. 
The very first meeting called to consider the for¬ 
mation of the society was held in his house. When 
the International Red Cross Congress was con¬ 
vened in Geneva, Solomon, together with Miss 
Barton represented the United States. As a 
tribute to his efforts, the delegates elected him 
vice-president of their sessions. 

Another oustanding philanthropist was Jacob 
Henry Schiff. Born in 1848 in Germany he came to 
America where he entered the banking business. 
He was affiliated with the House of Kuhn, Loeb 
& Co. A good portion of the fortune he amassed 
was spent in philanthropic enterprises. He did 
not confine himself to institutions of his own race, 
but opened his purse for a large number of non¬ 
sectarian institutions. He contributed to Cornell 
University and to Barnard College. His donations 
went to innumerable hospitals and educational in¬ 
stitutions, and more than one philanthropic organ¬ 
ization owes the extension of its activities to his 
support. In 1920 Schiff died, leaving behind him 
large bequests for institutions which he had sup¬ 
ported during his lifetime. His son, Mortimer 
Schiff, the largest financial supporter of the Boy 
Scouts of America, is carrying on the philanthropic 
tradition of the family. 


The Jews in the Making of America 225 

There have been a number of Jews who have 
represented their country abroad. The most im¬ 
portant of the early figures was Major Mordecai 
Manuel Noah, the vivid and versatile personality 
of New York society in the beginning of the nine¬ 
teenth century. Noah, appointed by President 
Madison, was consul general at Tunis for a num¬ 
ber of years. During the course of his sojourn 
abroad he managed to write “Travels in England, 
Spain and the Barbary Coast.” Later he was 
elected sheriff of New York County where he 
played an important part in the political life of 
his time. 

Edwin de Leon was consul general in Egypt in 
the 50’s of the last century. He was a very versa¬ 
tile figure, a lawyer, journalist and politician and 
publisher. He established the Southern Press, 
which became the Washington organ of the South 
during the decade preceding the Civil War. De 
Leon rendered conspicuous service to the Greeks 
when the latter were threatened with expulsion 
from Turkey. He introduced American machinery 
into Egypt and opened up new markets for the 
country’s products. During the Civil War, he 
was sent on a Confederate mission to Europe to 
urge recognition of the South. 

Benjamin F. Peixotto (1839-1890) first served 
as editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and was 


226 The Jews in the Making of America 

then appointed by President Grant as Consul 
General to Roumania. Here he distinguished 
himself as a warm advocate of his persecuted co¬ 
religionists and was instrumental in enlisting the 
sympathy of Americans in their behalf. 

Perhaps the most important Jewish figure 
amongst the country’s representatives abroad was 
Oscar Straus, born in 1850 in North Carolina. 
After graduating from Columbia College in 1871, 
he devoted himself to law. He was the United 
States minister and ambassador to Turkey under 
three different administrations. Amidst the bustle 
of political life, he has found time to write two 
scholarly volumes, “The Development of Religious 
Liberty in the United States” and the “Origin of 
the Republican Form of Government.” In the 
latter he has demonstrated the unique influence 
of Jewish spiritual ideals in the founding of the 
American republic and has obligated to himself 
every writer on Jewish influence in America by his 
exhaustive research. In addition he has written 
“Under Four Administrations,” a biographic 
narrative replete with interesting comment on the 
leading American personalities of the last four 
decades. Straus was among the founders of the 
National Civic Federation, the American Associa¬ 
tion of International Law, etc. He is affiliated 
with a great number of political and academic 


The Jews in the Making of America 227 

associations and was candidate for Governor of 
New York State on the Progressive ticket in 1912. 
Straus was the American represenative at the 
International Court of Arbitration at the Hague. 
In 1906, he became Secretary of Commerce and 
Labor under President Roosevelt. Despite ad¬ 
vancing years he has not diminished his activity 
and still remains an outstanding figure of today. 

Solomon Hirsch, Henry Morgenthau and 
Abram I. Elkus have also occupied the position of 
Ambassador to Turkey. Ira Nelson Morris has 
been Minister to Sweden. Rabbi Joseph Louis 
Kornfeld is serving at present as Minister to 
Persia, while Lewis Einstein, an experienced diplo¬ 
mat and scholar, author of “Tudor England,” is 
occupying the same position in Czecho-Slovakia. 

A number of Jews have served in consular posts, 
among them Max D. Kirjasoff, Consul-General to 
Japan, who met his death in the cataclysmic earth¬ 
quake that overwhelmed that oriental country in 
September, 1923. Simon Wolf was Consul Gen¬ 
eral to Egypt during the Garfield Administration. 

Dr. Leo S. Rowe has been an effective factor in 
linking together North and South America. Dr. 
Rowe is Director of the Pan American Union and 
is responsible, to a large extent, for the existing 
harmony between the United States and its South¬ 
ern neighbors. In addition, he is the head of the 


228 The Jews in the Making of America 

South American Section of the Department of 
State. Since 1902 he has been President of the 
American Academy of Political and Social 
Science. 

In upholding the ideal of equality before the 
law and in seeking to combat oppression of racial 
minorities, the Jews have not been remiss. Louis 
Marshall fought for the rights of Japanese in 
California who believed themselves to have been 
unfairly treated. Herbert J. Seligman has been 
a staunch fighter against Negro oppression and 
is the author of “The Negro Faces America.” 
Joel Spingarn, formerly professor at Columbia 
University and one of the most prominent literary 
critics in America today has spent much time and 
labor for the amelioration of conditions among 
suffering negroes. The great benefactions of 
Julius Rosenwald to Negro Y. M. C. A.’s has en¬ 
abled them to carry out extended activities other¬ 
wise denied them. 

In the realm of journalism, Adolph S. Ochs is 
one of the most prominent Jewish figures. Born 
in Cincinnati in 1858, he became a carrier newsboy 
at the age of eleven. Later he was elevated to 
the position of printer’s apprentice. At twenty, 
however, he had managed to become the publisher 
of the Chattanooga Times. Then he came to 
New York to direct the destines of the New York 


The Jews in the Making of America 229 

Times, which then had a circulation of 9,000 and 
a daily deficit of $1,000. In twenty-five years he 
transformed it into one of the most influential of 
the world’s dailies. 

Leon Carvahlo is the general manager of the 
Hearst Publications. Victor Rosewater for a long 
time was publisher of the Omaha Bee, Daniel 
Nicoll is publisher of the Evening Mail of New 
York. David Lawrence, formerly connected with 
the New York Evening Post, was for a long 
time its Washington correspondent. Charles 
Michelson, a brother of Professor Albert 
Michelson, the physicist, is a political writer on 
the Morning World of New York, which has 
among its foreign correspondents Samuel Spe- 
wack. The New York World, was founded by 
Joseph Pulitzer, who was of Jewish descent. 
Herman Bernstein, formerly connected with the 
New York Times and the New York Sun . is 
the author of a volume entitled “With Master 
Minds,” a series of interviews with the leading 
personalities of the day. Simeon Strunsky is lite¬ 
rary editor of the New York Evening Post. 
Jack Lait is one of the most prolific of contempo¬ 
rary journalists and short story writers. Fabian 
Franklin, formerly of the Baltimore News, is a 
veteran American journalist. Benjamin DeCas- 
seres is both a journalist and an essayist of un- 


230 The Jews in the Making of America 


usual distinction. Sophie Irene Loeb is a popular 
writer on feminine subjects and social welfare, 
connected with the New York Evening World. 
Michael Harry de Young owns and edits the San 
Francisco Chronicle. 

S. J. Kaufman is on the staff of the Evening 
Telegram. Sonia Levin is one of the editors of 
the Metropolitan Magazine. Gilbert Seldes is 
managing editor of The Dial. Dr. Henry Hur- 
witz and Marvin Lowenthal are the editors of the 
Menorah Journal. 

There are hosts of young Jews scattered 
throughout the breadth and length of the land 
who occupy minor journalistic positions. In addi¬ 
tion there is particularly in New York City a 
flourishing Yiddish press which vies with the 
better newspapers of the larger cities in intelli¬ 
gence and high calibre. 

The scholastic and literary attainments of the 
editors of the Yiddish press are unusual. Of the 
four New York papers with any claim to standing 
two are conservative, one is liberal, and one is re¬ 
form Socialist. One of the editors of Der Tag 
(liberal) is Dr. Abram Coralnik, a man of ex¬ 
traordinary linguistic capacity. Dr. Coralnik 
writes and reads ten different languages. He has 
contributed to the Freeman and other American 
periodicals of literary distinction. A member of 


The Jews in the Making of America 231 

the regular staff is Prof. I. A. Hourwich, formerly 
of the faculty of the University of Chicago, 
author of the exhaustive treatise on “Immigration 
and Labor,” and a number of other works on 
economic and kindred subjects. Another regular 
and prolific member of the staff is Dr. Chayim 
Zhitlovsky, who has written a three volume his¬ 
tory of philosophy, nine volumes of essays in 
Yiddish on economics and general literature, and 
a number of works in German and Russian. One 
of the leading contributors to this paper is S. 
Niger, a young critic whose work is not inferior 
to some of best literary criticism produced in 
America today. 

The editor of The Forward (Reform Social¬ 
ist) is the eminent novelist, Abraham Cahan. 
Sholom Asch, the famous playwright, whose 
dramas and novels have been translated into a 
number of languages, is a regular member of the 
staff. Ramsay McDonald, the present premier 
of England, was for some time London corres¬ 
pondent of The Forward, a position now filled 
by Philip Snowden, M. P. The Berlin correspon¬ 
dent of The Forward is Karl Kautsky; its Paris 
correspondent is Jean Longuet. 

The editor of the Jewish Morning Journal, 
which is as conservative as the New York 
Times, is Peter Wiernick, the author of a schol- 


232 The Jews in the Making of America 

arly volume in English, “The History of the Jews 
in America”; while George Selikowitch, editor of 
Der Tageblatt (The Jewish Daily News, con¬ 
servative), is a linguist and philosopher. He has 
among other works written “The Philosophy of 
Buddha.” 

All shades of political opinion are found rep¬ 
resented in the Yiddish Press. Yiddish news¬ 
papers fulfill the functions of a magazine in addi¬ 
tion to their duties as purveyors of news. They 
publish a plethora of articles on the most varied 
subjects which have their counterpart only in the 
American weekly and monthly periodicals. Due 
to the wide dispersion of the Jews, these New 
York newspapers have a regular correspondence 
service that equals in its ramifications the large in¬ 
ternational news agencies. Occasionally one finds 
in a Yiddish newspaper articles from correspond¬ 
ents in such far apart places as Palestine, France 
and South America. The wide outlook resulting 
from an acquaintance with conditions in such 
diverse lands is a distinct gain to the mentality 
of the American readers of the Yiddish press. 
The mental food they serve surpasses that of 
many American newspapers; they are contribu¬ 
tions to America, for they are agencies for the 
enlightenment and cultural elevation of American 
citizens and residents. 


The Jews in the Making of America 233 

Ifi the realm of religion a large number of in¬ 
fluential leaders and rabbis have arisen who, while 
devoting their efforts particularly to the internal 
life of the Jews, nevertheless proved of great in¬ 
fluence in the elevation of the moral tone of the 
general community. 

American life on the other hand has had a mod¬ 
ifying effect upon the religious life of the Jew. 
Faced with a set of new conditions, unlimited re¬ 
ligious freedom and the opportunity to join spir¬ 
itually and culturally into the life of the American, 
he has adapted the old forms to the demands of 
the new times. In the case of some of its Jewish 
citizens America has weakened the strictness with 
which the Jew has followed the orthodox ritual 
that characterized his life in Europe; but, on the 
other hand, the American Jew has acquired the 
power of organization and the capacity to develop 
the philanthropic and social service activity of 
the group. The Jews in their communal and re¬ 
ligious life have acquired completely some of the 
outstanding features of American civilization, sys¬ 
tem, mechanical organization, and material 
power. 

The most important of the reformed Rabbis 
was Isaac M. Wise (Bohemia 1819-Cincinnati 
1900). He established in Cincinnati The 
Israelite (now the American Israelite), and 


234 The Jews in the Making of America 

through this organ advocated unceasingly the 
ideals of a reformed Judaism. His versatile gifts 
enabled him to shine as a forceful preacher, an 
erudite writer of historical and theological works, 
a novelist with several works to his credit, and an 
author of two plays. His chief strength was his 
organizing ability. In a comparatively short time 
he organized the Union of American Hebrew 
Congregations, the Hebrew Union College 
(opened 1875) and the Central Conference of 
American Rabbis (1889). 

A number of other Rabbis from Germany ar¬ 
rived during the time of Wise’s growing ascend¬ 
ency in American religious life and aided in its 
organization. David Einhorn, Kaufman Kohler, 
President Emeritus of the Hebrew Union College, 
Samuel Adler, Bernhard Felsenthal, Max Lilien- 
thal, and Samuel Hirsch were instrumental in 
fashioning the form and content of what its pro¬ 
tagonists call American Judaism. 

The son of Samuel Hirsch, Emil G. Hirsch 
(Luxenbourg 1852-Chicago 1922) succeeded in 
becoming one of the most influential of the rabbis 
after the passing of the earlier pioneers. He was 
a professor of Rabbinical Literature at the Uni¬ 
versity of Chicago, the editor of the Reformed 
Advocate, one of the editors of the Jewish en- 


The Jews in the Making of America 235 

cyclopedia, and active in the elevation of {he moral 
and cultural level of the city of Chicago. 

His mantle as the leader of the reformed faith 
has fallen upon the shoulders of Stephen S. Wise 
(Budapest 1872), rabbi of the Free Synagogue of 
New York and the head of the Jewish Institute of 
Religion. Wise is generally considered as the 
most eloquent of American rabbis, if not among 
the most eloquent of living Americans. He has 
in addition to his rabbincal duties been active in 
the improvement of the political life of the com¬ 
munity and in the organization of American 
Jewry. 

The incoming hosts of Jews from Eastern 
Europe, who followed after the German-Jewish 
groups were firmly established, brought with them 
a firm orthodox faith and a number of great 
Talmudic scholars. Pre-eminent among them was 
Solomon Schechter (Roumania 1847-New York 
1919). Rabbi Schechter, in the course of his life 
time, was the President of the Jewish Theological 
Seminary and perhaps the greatest of American 
Jewish thinkers. He was the author of a number 
of works on problems of Jewish religion and made 
original investigations in the realm of Jewish 
history in mediaeval times. Associated with 
Schechter in the work of the Jewish Theological 
Seminary were scholars like Louis Ginsburg, 


236 The Jews in the Making of America 


Israel Friedlander, Mordecai M. Kaplan and sev¬ 
eral others who assisted with their scholarship in 
the maintaining of Jewish tradition. The pres¬ 
ent head of this institution is Dr. Cyrus Adler, of 
the Dropsie College of Philadelphia and Presi¬ 
dent of the American Oriental Society. 

The greatest cultural event in the history of 
American Jewry was the publication of the Jewish 
Encyclopedia. This monumental work is the 
greatest Jewish work of reference in any language 
and was projected by Dr. Isidor Singer (Moravia 
1859). It was edited by a board of well known 
scholars. Dr. Isaac Funk of the firm of Funk & 
Wagnalls, publishers of the work, was Chairman, 
and Frank IT. Vizitelly was Secretary. Four 
hundred Semitic scholars of Europe and America 
contributed to make it the supreme authority upon 
all matters pertaining to the checkered history 
of the Jewish people in all the phases of its mani¬ 
fold activity. Five years were consumed in the 
preparation of the work. 


CHAPTER XIII 


THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE JEW 

As the status of the Jew is becoming stabilized 
in modern society, he is ceasing to be the Wander¬ 
ing Jew and has instead become the Mysterious 
Jew. The student of folklore and of the survival 
of myths will find in the Gentile conception of the 
Jew an interesting perpetuation of a primitive 
mental attitude. The Jew has ceased to be in 
league with Satan; he is not that abnormal, in¬ 
human specimen of mediaeval days who in the 
popular imagination had unique odors and diseases 
and was possessed of cloven hoofs and horns. No 
longer does he suffer to prove that evil overtakes 
those who reject the conventionally accepted creed, 
nor will he continue to wander until he becomes 
purged of sin. But the vital thing behind these 
legends, the distrust that gave them birth, lives on, 
and discarding the religious symbols of a religious 
age, take on the economic and racial symbols char¬ 
acteristic of an age of scientific and pseudo-scienti¬ 
fic theorizing. Truths may come and truths may 
237 


238 The Jews in the Making of America 

go, but some legends live on forever. The Jew still 
stands unique, a victim of his fatal conspicuity and 
the excessive interest taken in him by his sur¬ 
rounding neighbors. It still remains difficult to 
conceive him as a normal individual and to denomi¬ 
nate him not only as a Jew, but as a person and a 
man. Some veil of mystery or separateness must 
surround him, or else something is thought amiss. 
But analysis means the death of mystery, and both 
the saintly halo drawn around him by some or the 
brand of Cain imprinted upon him by others fade 
upon a survey of those forces that have created 
and moulded him. 

The history of the Jews is an unending tale of 
suffering, woe and degradation. Here and there 
a shaft of light, a temporary gleam illumines the 
dark pathway through which there has moved this 
tattered procession of proud outcasts, but by and 
large its career remains a monumental testimony 
to the hatred and brutality of which man is cap¬ 
able. It has subsisted in the lower depths for 
centuries and tasted of all the forms of torture, 
physical and mental that diabolical ingenuity has 
created. It has lived and learned as no other 
people has lived and learned, because it has suf¬ 
fered as no other people has suffered. 

Disraeli, the Jew, who tamed the world’s proud¬ 
est aristocracy and made it the puppet of his 


The Jews in the Making of America 239 

fancies, was moved as all intelligent Jews are 
moved by the tragic sublimity of this people’s 
history, and summarized in a few eloquent words 
the whole essence of its career. “The attempt to 
extirpate them (the Jews) has been made under 
the most favorable auspices and on the largest 
scale; the most considerable means that men could 
command have been pertinaciously applied to the 
object for the longest period of recorded time. 
Egyptian Pharaohs, Assyrian Kings, Roman Em¬ 
perors, Scandinavian Crusaders, Gothic Princes and 
Holy Inquisitors have alike devoted their energies 
to the fulfillment of this common purpose. Ex¬ 
patriation, exile, captivity, confiscation, torture on 
the most ingenious and massacres on the most 
extensive scale, a curious system of degrading 
customs and debasing laws which would have 
broken the heart of any other people, have been 
tried in vain.” 

These were the external powers that repeatedly 
sought to crush forever this landless people. 
What were the results upon the object of its lust? 

Psycho-analysts have divided mankind into two 
classes, introverts and extroverts. The class of 
the introverts, viewing the grimness of the human 
conflict, finds itself unable to meet life on its own 
plane. It reconstructs a new life in some Utopia, 
it finds refuge from the conflict in day dreams of 


240 The Jews in the Making of America 

its own power, it leads an imaginative life devoid 
of all the harshness that is part of reality. Its re¬ 
flective powers become dominant, “the native hue 
of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of 
thought.” A race of impractical dreamers is 
bred; thought takes the place of action in its life. 

Extroverts, however, meet life on its own plane. 
Astuteness is developed in the face of the adver¬ 
sary; all the acumen is concentrated upon the 
creation of the symbols of security and independ¬ 
ence. The desire to master realities is substituted 
for the reflective powers; these extroverts are 
bold, alert, and ready to seize every opportunity 
that gives them a mastery over their environment. 

Suffering is but an intensification of life. It is 
life at its extreme point. Hence the participants 
in an existence of undue suffering, develop in an 
exaggerated measure the same qualities that nor¬ 
mal introverts and normal extroverts possess. 
Types are brought into being that exceed the nor¬ 
mal in their resourcefulness, in the keenness of their 
wits, and in the rapidity of their mental processes. 
This is basically the story of the evolution of the 
Jew of today. One class of Jews met life on its 
own level and developed faculties that enabled it 
to survive despite all vicissitudes, while the intro¬ 
verts found consolation in the world of dreams 
and of intellectual activity. 


The Jews in the Making of America 241 


Suffering deepened their longing for justice; de¬ 
gradation awoke within them the hatred of tyr¬ 
anny. They reconstructed an ideal life for the 
future generations of men, reared on the basis of 
equality and justice. This world of the future 
was substituted for the existing world of realities. 
They enriched themselves upon things not of the 
material world but on dreams and learning. The 
acquisitive faculty of the race mastered the realm 
which has no contact with the world of persecutors 
and persecuted. It accumulated treasures of 
erudition and idealism. 

Thus the soul of Israel, split into two warring 
elements, emerged from behind the Ghetto walls 
at the clarion call of the French Revolution. The 
Jewish soul revealed itself as Janus-faced; on one 
side was the visage of Rothschild — on the other 
the visage of Karl Marx. One element found the 
balm for the disease of its abnormality in a Gilead 
of economic power; the other found refuge in the 
coming world of equality and universal brother¬ 
hood. From one came the experts in the science 
of amassing wealth; from the other the whole host 
of social Messiahs. Every Jew has a heritage 
from two ancestors — from the keen-witted old- 
clothes peddler on one side and from the dreamy 
Talmudic sage on the other side. From the one 
has come much of the theory and most of the 


242 The Jews in the Making of America 

pioneer practice of our modern system of capi¬ 
talism and from the other the cry of its remodifica¬ 
tion. 

Rulers throughout the ages consigned their 
Jewish subjects to Ghettos, but in reality they only 
affirmed the natural course of a persecuted 
minority to flock together for protection and 
succour. Hence the Jew is essentially the city 
dweller in practically all the countries of the 
world. But it is to this city life that the Jew owes 
his ready intelligence. The dull, undisturbed 
monotony of the life of the husbandman and serf 
was not for him; he located himself on the market 
place to engage in mental combat with all comers. 
In this alone could he find his livelihood. City 
life for obvious reasons breeds the sophisticated 
and the quick-witted, while the peasant through¬ 
out the ages has been notorious for his cumber¬ 
some mental processes. “Reading maketh a full 
man, conference a ready man,” wrote Bacon, and 
what does one do in a city if not continually 
confer? 

The intensity of the life struggle made the un¬ 
fit pass away. The strong-willed, the ingenious 
held aloft the tattered ensign of their faith, while 
the timid, the weak-kneed, those unable to adapt 
themselves to the varying gusts of circumstance, 
left the beleaguered fortress. A selective process 


The Jews in the Making of America 243 


ensued and those that survived did so by virtue 
of certain superior faculties of mind. In the mean¬ 
time, pressure from the outside flung disunited 
elements together and forged a chain of solidarity 
that has become a remarkable social phenomenon. 

The results of the nomadic tendencies of the 
Jews’ Bedouin ancestors still are potent forces in 
the make-up of the modern Jew. That restlessness 
which impelled the race to seek newer realms and 
better climes imparted to it during the course of 
its vicissitudes an adaptability and a readiness that 
are useful in the life struggle. What is so potent 
a factor in mental development as travel, and 
Israel has been the most travelled of peoples. The 
tribe of the “wandering foot” to keep travelling 
had to develop the gift of quickness of thought, 
of improvisation, of ready comprehension. Cruel 
expulsions and exiles strengthened the natural 
tendency so that the Jew attained a flexibility of 
mind far beyond the normal. “A gallant Greek, a 
stupid Jew, an honest Gypsy,” all are unthinkable, 
says the Roumanian proverb. “A hare that is 
slow and a Jew who is a fool, both are equally 
probable,” says the Spanish proverb. 

If, as educationalists write, the true function of 
education is the fostering of adaptability to envir¬ 
onment, then Israel is truly among the most edu¬ 
cated of peoples. The power of adaptation, 


244 The Jews in the Making of America 

together with intelligence, constitute the two 
premier faculties of the Jew. The struggle for 
the survival was more intense for him than for any 
other people. Hence, he enters the arena of life 
with all vices and virtues generated by this in¬ 
tensity of conflict. He had to acclimatize him¬ 
self continually to new conditions; every day might 
bring forth a new decree, a new massacre, a new 
confiscation, a new order of expulsion. In his 
wanderings he had to get along with myriads of 
new situations and a host of diverse peoples, lan¬ 
guages and customs. He, therefore, before all 
other people grasped the idea of the essential 
unity of mankind. He came in contact with their 
differences and found them easily reconcilable and 
also superficial. But from all his travels he has 
learned the lesson of adaptability and to-day the 
product of the Odessa Ghetto stages America’s 
gigantic theatrical spectacles or the child of a 
small Lithuanian town becomes later in life Pro¬ 
fessor of English in an American University. 

A tremendous factor in the creation of the 
intellectuality of the Jew, has been the power 
exerted by his rabbinic tradition. For centuries 
the Talmud was the fertile soil from which Israel 
drew its spiritual and its mental sustenance. 
Together with external forces it moulded and 
formed the Jewish mind of today. The large 


The Jews in the Making of America 245 

masses of Jews throughout the world and America 
are dominated, consciously or unconsciously, by 
the habits of thought fostered by the Talmudic 
sages. 

Among no people has the worship of the intel¬ 
lectual powers of man been carried to the same 
extreme as among the Jews. The Talmud, a vast 
encyclopaedia of laws, discussions and speculations 
on all the varied phases of human life, has been 
mainly responsible for this attitude of mind. In 
the Ghettos of Europe, the bright children of four¬ 
teen and fifteen were taught to absorb this form 
of erudition and to discuss all the intricate and 
abstruse problems faced by ancient Rabbis of 
Israel. 

“May a judge be called as a witness?” “A man 
has admitted half a total liability that is not sus¬ 
ceptible of proof. Some Talmudists consider him 
credible since he might have denied the whole 
liability. Others think that to deny the whole 
liability would require more impudence than any¬ 
body possesses and conclude that he admitted half 
his liability out of weakness.” On problems such 
as these, youthful Talmudists are supposed to dis¬ 
cuss. The lad who could prove himself a master of 
all the subtle problems presented in the Talmud 
was most sought after for a husband. He was the 
ideal to which all children aspired. He was the 


246 The Jews in the Making of America 

pride of his parents and the glory of his com¬ 
munity. 

Dr. Fromer, an Eastern Jewish writer, some 
years ago gave an account of his youthful life in 
the Ghetto. Once, while visiting a Rabbi, he dis¬ 
covered a number of Jews on the lookout for 
profitable husbands for their daughters. One such 
Jew met an acquaintance who was accompanied 
by his son, a youth of fifteen years. The acquaint¬ 
ance sought to embarrass the youngster with all 
sorts of Talmudic problems. The boy “lay low,” 
answered warily, and presently turned the tables 
on the questioner by displaying his erudition. The 
latter was struck by the lad’s knowledge and asked 
the father whether he was married. Here the 
parent scornfully remarked that marriage brokers 
were constantly bidding for the boy but he was in 
no hurry to marry him off. With every passing 
day he learnt more and with the increase of his 
knowledge came an increase in the proffered 
dowry. 

Bargaining then began despite the first objec¬ 
tion of the father. It ended with a marriage con¬ 
tract which stipulated that the boy was bound to 
marry the questioner’s daughter in return for a 
dowry of $200.00 and ten years’ keep for the boy 
husband. 

What has occurred in the Ghetto for centuries 


The Jews in the Making of America 247 

is the direct antithesis of the prevailing trend in 
modern society. The more intellectual Jews in the 
preceding ages were the first to marry. The 
higher types reproduced themselves more fre¬ 
quently than those who lacked the qualities which 
the whole community thought desirable. The 
Ghetto society of the past furnishes perhaps the 
sole exception to the universal law that has been 
the nemesis of all the empires that have vanished; 
the continued reproduction of the unfit and the 
sterility and childlessness of the intellectual 
classes. A remarkable case of sexual selection has 
ensued; it would be difficult to parallel it with the 
biological processes of any recorded state of 
society. 

Intellectual interests and intellectual skill 
played the predominating role in his life. The 
physical powers and activity remain largely 
neglected. The thirst for knowledge is insatiable; 
his intellect is continually seeking exercise. “The 
Jews,” says that enfant terrible of American 
literature, H. L. Mencken, in one of his character¬ 
istic diatribes against the prevailing civilization, 
“are intellectually two or three steps in advance 
of the people among whom they dwell.” Another 
observer, Everett Dean Martin, the genial leader 
of the Forum at Cooper Union, New York, in his 
excellent work on the psychology of the crowd, 


248 The Jews in the Making of America 

remarks that “outside the immigrant Russian 
Jews, there is very little real intellectual life.” 
The Jew has a tradition of learning longer than 
that of any other people. Israel first introduced 
compulsory education for the youth, and when this 
intellect schooled in the dialectics of Talmud and 
Torah emancipates itself from the walls of the 
Ghetto, it contributes an undue proportion of men 
of talent and capacity to the world’s civilization. 

“The mind of the Jew,” wrote Anatole Leroy 
Beaulieu, “is a faultlessly exact mechanism.” 
What is so revealing of the soul of a people as the 
peculiarities of its language ? In these it expresses 
its most secret thoughts and manners; its twists of 
language are but its twist of intellect and emotions. 
In expressions for activity of mind, Hebrew un¬ 
doubtedly is the richest of languages. There are 
eleven words for “seeking” or “researching”; 
thirty-four for distinguishing or separating; fifteen 
for combining. Hence it is no wonder that the 
scions of Israel are possessed of the power of 
quick thought, precise analysis, exact dissection, 
speedy combinations of ideas, the power of seeing 
the point at once, of suggesting analogies, of dis¬ 
tinguishing between synonyms. In diagnosing dis¬ 
eases, in the playing of chess, in mathematics, in 
all those activities where these particular faculties 
come into play, the Jew romps off with more prizes 


249 


The Jews in the Making of America 

proportionately than he is entitled to by his num¬ 
bers 

There is another contemporary characteristic 
of the Jew that dates from remote antiquity. 
Nomadism has ever been the badge of all the 
tribe; there has been no people that has lived so 
small a proportion of its national life upon its 
own native soil. At a very early age the Jew 
seems to have discovered the prime law of pro¬ 
gress; restlessness and the vision of better things. 
He did not, like other people, transplant the ful¬ 
filment of his desires to another world, for this 
life and the fullness thereof were his prime con¬ 
cern. When Jehovah closed his eyelids in death, 
eternal darkness came. If he failed to live here, 
he failed forever. Progress was infinite; there 
were no fixed standards which having been at¬ 
tained, made further effort unnecessary. 

Though even of the dust, he aspired to the stars 
and the permanency of any status not based on solid 
achievement was for him incomprehensible. “The 
learned bastard takes precedence over the ignorant 
high priest,” wrote the Talmud. That ancient 
rabbinic author expressed profoundly the icono- 
clasm of Israel. The Jew realized that most 
achievements resulted from the use of wits, and 
egostistic enough to believe that he possessed that 
precious desideratum, simply set out to achieve it. 


250 The Jews in the Making of America 

He knew only one Master, God; for him there 
were no intermediaries. After all, a man may be, 
despite Carlyle, a hero to his valet, but who can be 
a hero to his own brother? And since all Israel¬ 
ites were brothers, every Israelite was an incorrig¬ 
ible democrat and individualist. He was the abor¬ 
iginal democrat, because, one suspects, his strong 
egotism led him to believe that he was just as good 
as those who ruled him. 

“All is vanity,” wrote the author of Ecclesiastes, 
but these words he penned in an Hellenic and not 
a Hebraic mood. For the Jew everything has a 
purpose, from the creation of the universe to dis¬ 
carded old clothing. 

The Jew has lived much better than the Gentile 
allowed him. He has escaped most of the brutal¬ 
izing and degrading consequences that slavery and 
oppression bring. His unconquerable spirit — his 
perseverance and inherited optimism, wearied his 
inveterate enemies. The Talmud and Torah, the 
secret spring from which he drew his sustenance 
and nourished his starving soul, remained intact. 

Most remarkable of all is the fact that in the 
midst of all his suffering, he has developed a 
humaneness that is stronger in him than in anyone 
else. Crimes of passion and violence are not in 
his ken. Bloodshed he abhors so that the very 


The Jews in the Making of America 251 

meat he eats must be purified from all sanguineous 
traces. The Sanhedrin, which for the first time 
in seventy years condemned a man to death, was 
called bloody, — this more than twenty centuries 
before the agitation for the abolition of war and 
capital punishment. It is no wonder that L. J. 
Garven, that acute English publicist, declared the 
Jews are always first to display the true Christian 
spirit. 

Alcoholism has not sapped the vitality of the 
Jew. His mental faculties have been kept alert 
by the hostility of the non-Jew and by the force of 
his Talmudic tradition. His ambition springs 
from his innate individualism and his democracy. 
His adaptability is the result of his nomadic life. 
Time has taught him the necessity of patience and 
his will power is another aspect of the hereditary 
“stiff neckedness” that Moses denounced. 

Combine all these faculties and you have the 
secret of the Jew’s resiliency. The consummate 
ease with which he rebounds from the lowest 
strata of economic life and reaches the sacred 
precincts of prestige and culture, which are 
thought to be the monopoly of the few, are to be 
attributed to the unique combination of his facul¬ 
ties. Time cannot exhaust nor hostility deplete 
the stores of his nervous energy. Centuries before 


252 The Jews in the Making of America 

Darwin he had glimpsed the fact that life was a 
struggle and the mode of existence forced upon 
him has endowed him with the precise qualities 
that now make him successful. 


SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 


We have seen thus that the influence of the 
Jewish race upon America began with its very 
discovery. The new continent came into human 
ken in the same year that the Spanish Jews were 
driven from the land in which they had prospered 
for centuries. The connection between the two 
events is more than accidental; the possibility that 
the impulse which animated the Jewish backers of 
Columbus was that of creating an avenue of escape 
in the country about to be opened or reopened to 
international commerce has already been sug¬ 
gested. Jewish money partly contributed toward 
the financing of the voyages; Jewish brains were 
utilized for the creation of those maritime instru¬ 
ments which made the trip of the great discoverer 
possible. 

More than a century elapsed before the first 
permanent settlements were made in the new conti¬ 
nent. But it was not the maritime peoples of the 
Mediterranean who linked their destiny with the 
northern portion of the new hemisphere. Instead, 
a hardy pioneer folk, suffering from religious per- 
253 


254 The Jews in the Making of America 

secution and animated by a desire for adventure 
and economic improvement, began the work of 
exploiting the resources of the new world. 

This pioneer folk had only indirectly come in 
contact with the people of Israel. It had, how¬ 
ever, been bred in an atmosphere redolent with 
Hebrew culture and had absorbed to the uttermost 
the book of books, which contained for them the 
totality of human wisdom. The Bible, that had 
to a large extent formed and moulded Israel, 
formed and moulded these founders of the north¬ 
ern colonies. The religious separatism that had 
preserved the Jewish people throughout the 
generations found in them similar devotees. It 
gave them their powers of endurance and their 
tenacity in the face of all obstacles. 

The characteristics of the Jewish people, its 
individualism, its democracy, its austerity, and its 
self-discipline, all of which flowed from its reli¬ 
gion and its Biblical Training, were also exempli¬ 
fied in the Puritans of early days. Their Biblical 
training and their religion developed in them pre¬ 
cisely the same elements of character, elements 
which were of urgent necessity in the conquest of 
the new continent. 

Here was the Jew at the very beginning of 
America. By personal contact he had contributed 
in a large degree to the discovery of the new 


The Jews in the Making of America 255 

hemisphere, later by the very force of the ideals 
which he had enunciated centuries previously in 
the land of his origin, he created the types instru¬ 
mental in laying the deeper foundations of 
America. The duality of the Jewish nature was 
never better displayed than in the case of our 
country, where they first in the material sense, and 
later in the spiritual sense contributed toward the 
making of the republic of today. 

Nor were they in the economic sense laggards. 
Their participation in the Dutch West Indian 
company has been noted, as was also the fact of 
their entrance into the life of the colony of New 
York, prior to its capture by the English. The 
Jews raised Newport to a place of eminence in the 
commercial world. In Georgia, and in Charles¬ 
ton they planted colonies which still remain intact 
despite the lapse of time. 

In the revolution they gave forth a number of 
officers. Haym Solomon, the Polish Jewish 
immigrant, gave his fortune to the cause of the 
colonies, and his heirs to this day still remain un¬ 
compensated by the American government. Solo¬ 
mon was the confidant of statesmen and from his 
own private purse maintained men like Madison 
and other founders of the republic. In the War 
of 1812 the Jews gave their share. One of the 
most romantic figures in the war, Captain John 


256 The Jews in the Making of America 

Ordronneaux, of the privateer Prince de Neuf- 
chatel, was a scion of Israel. 

In the Civil War also the Jews gave their quota. 
Large numbers of them coming from the lands of 
oppression in Central Europe enthusiastically en¬ 
tered the conflict, for the emancipation of the 
slaves was a cause that necessarily appealed to 
those who had just fled from the rule of tyrants. 

In the World War they gave more than their 
due. The Lost Battalion, with so large a propor¬ 
tion of Jewish men, will remain a forever cher¬ 
ished memory of American military history. At 
the same time it will find its way into the annals 
of the Jewry of America. In the mobilization of 
the civil front they played a disproportionate role. 
Three out of the seven members of the omnipo¬ 
tent advisory Committee of the Council of Na¬ 
tional Defense were of Jewish blood. Their num¬ 
ber in the more difficult branches of army service, 
infantry, etc., was, as we have noted above, more 
than their general proportion to the population. 

Within the past several decades they have pene¬ 
trated into all the realms of American life. In the 
economic field particularly they have labored in- 
defatigably. They have placed merchandising 
and distribution on a firm basis; the department 
store, fulfilling as it does its unique function in the 
economic life of America, is largely the creation of 


The Jews in the Making of America 257 

their brains. The clothing industry has been 
raised from its former stagnant position. In 
1880 its invested capital was below $100,000,000. 
A generation later, due to the influx of the Jewish 
masses, its invested capital was raised to an 
amount variously estimated from three-quarters 
of a billion to a billion. 

The second generation of these immigrant Jews 
do not follow the same occupation as their parents. 
Their sons and daughters knock at the doors of 
all the institutions of learning. They constitute 
about 10% of the student body of America, though 
the whole of Jewry is a little over 3% of the gen¬ 
eral population. They are taking up law, medi¬ 
cine, pharmacy, teaching. The non-professional 
elements of the second generation have entered 
into merchandising and manufacturing. These do 
not confine themselves in any large measure to one 
industry, they have entered into all the paths and 
bypaths of economic activity. Many have become 
manual laborers, others have entered the civil 
service, federal, state and municipal. The back 
to the farm movement is gathering momentum and 
today the approximate number of Jews engaged in 
agriculture is 100,000. In the theatre they have 
proved a potent force and in the cinema they are 
the most powerful factor. A number of hitherto 
obscure Jews by sheer force of ability have won 


258 The Jews in the Making of America 

their way into a position of power. A new indus¬ 
try has been practically created over night and 
thousands upon thousands of Americans have 
gained their livelihood owing to the genius and 
imagination of these Jewish pioneers of the film 
industry. In the theatre they are active as man¬ 
agers, producers, actors and playwrights. The 
production of one of the great religious drama 
of Christianity, ‘The Miracle,” was financed by a 
Jew, Otto Kahn, and staged by two other Jews, 
Morris Gest and Max Goldman-Reinhardt. The 
Theatre Guild, America’s most promising theatri¬ 
cal institution, is almost a purely Jewish contribu¬ 
tion to America, while the Yiddish Art Theatre 
has gained a number of admirers among the non- 
Jews. The American thatre has been stabilized 
since the Jewish influx has begun. 

In the arts, in science and in public service, 
American Jewry is giving more than its propor¬ 
tionate strength. There is no field in which the 
Jew is not a participant. Music in America is 
largely a Jewish field; violinists particularly pro¬ 
claim the musical bent of the Jews. By their con¬ 
tributions they support more than one musical 
institution which otherwise would founder on the 
rocks of neglect and apathy. 

The Jew has truly made himself part and parcel 
of American life. He is inextricably connected 


The Jews in the Making of America 259 

with its very warp and woof, though the weapon 
of social antagonism is invoked against him. Anti¬ 
semitism, however, is the cult of the incompetent, 
of the failure, of the unsuccessful. Envy has al¬ 
ways been a badge of certain portions of the 
human tribe and its manifestations break forth 
upon the occasion of every achievement. To the 
composite picture that is America, the Jew has 
given a colorful and valuable touch. 

The Melting Pot in the meantime is boiling and 
the Jew is thawing out. The members of the 
second generation are miles apart from their for¬ 
bears. They have absorbed both the good and 
the bad elements of American life. They have an 
air of self-reliance and independence, but the in¬ 
tellectual intensity of the race is beginning to 
diminish. The “Talmud Chochum,” the rabbinical 
sage, the man of learning was the ideal of the 
elders, but the younger generation unfortunately 
shares in a certain measure the American distrust 
of the “high-brow”. 

Physically the improvement is tremendous. The 
children are taller and stronger than the genera¬ 
tion preceding them; the cringing look has dis¬ 
appeared and the bent back of the ghetto Jew 
gone forever. Their interests are more extensive 
than those of their elders, nevertheless the in¬ 
herent wisdom in the tradition and experience of 


260 The Jews in the Making of America 

centuries has been discarded, very unwisely, by 
the younger generation. 

It is hazardous to prophesy the length of time 
which the Jewish group, as such, shall exist as a 
distinctive element in American life. Some have 
. predicted that the hour of “Judendammerung,” 
the twilight of the Jew, is at hand and that the 
solvent of American democracy shall disintegrate 
the group within a century or two. Among others 
the Jew is looked upon as a permanent factor in 
the life of the peoples among whom he dwells. 

In the game of modern competition the Jew, 
due to those factors which have been analyzed in 
a previous chapter, frequently plays a winning 
hand. Motives of fear and of envy begin operat¬ 
ing among the non-Jews who surround him, and we 
have then a resultant tension. This is perfectly 
comprehensible, though in a state of society where 
fair play is a cardinal ethical doctrine, it should be 
an impossibility. The virtues of the Jew, his thrift, 
his sobriety, his tenacity, his ambition are precisely 
the qualities that give him prestige, and therefore 
give him his unpopularity. One wonders how 
much more intense the distrust would be were he 
devoid of all faults and vices. Dislike for the 
unlike seems a permanent element in human 
nature, and so long as the Jew is recognizable or 


The Jews in the Making of America 261 

even so long as his grandfathers are known as 
Jews, barriers will be erected. 

Intermarriage, if its desirability is granted, 
seems impossible for the group. Individuals here 
and there may lose themselves in the non-Jewish 
life, but the mass as such will continue to live 
with a varying measure of separateness, depend¬ 
ing upon local conditions, the force of its race 
pride and the extent of the antagonism from 
without. According to the figures of the bril¬ 
liant sociologist, Dr. Julius Drachsler, the rate 
of intermarriage between the Jew in America 
and the rest of the population is the lowest of 
all groups, with the exception of the colored. 
Whether we will it or not, the conclusion is 
unavoidable that though the cultural assimilation 
of the Jew is rapidly progressing, his physical 
union with various elements of the American 
people does not seem probable in the near future. 


CITIES WITH JEWISH POPULATION OVER 5,000 
Estimate 1917-1918 


Albany, N. Y. 

7,000 

Minneapolis, Minn. . 

15,000 

Atlanta, Ga. 

10,000 

Newark, N. J. 

55,000 

Baltimore, Md. 

60,000 

New Haven, Conn. .. 

18,000 

Bayonne, N. J. 

10,000 

New Orleans, La. ... 

8,000 

Boston, Mass. 

77,500 

New York City. 

1,500,000 

Bridgeport, Conn. ... 

12,000 

Norfolk, Va. 

5,000 

Buffalo, N. Y. 

20,000 

Oakland, Calif. .... 

5,000 

Cambridge, Mass. ... 

8,000 

Omaha, Neb. 

10,000 

Chelsea, Mass. 

13,000 

Paterson, N. J. 

15,000 

Chicago, Ill. 

225,000 

Philadelphia, Pa. 

200,000 

Cincinnati, Ohio .... 

25,000 

Pittsburg, Pa. 

60,000 

Cleveland, Ohio .... 

100,000 

Portsmouth, Va. 

8,000 

Columbus, Ohio .... 

9,000 

Providence, R. I. 

15,000 

Dallas, Texas. 

8,000 

Revere, Mass. 

6,000 

Denver, Colo. 

11,000 

Rochester, N. Y. 

20,000 

Detroit, Mich. 

50,000 

St. Louis, Mo. 

60,000 

Elizabeth, N. J. 

5,000 

St. Paul, Minn. 

10,000 

Fall River, Mass. .. 

7,500 

San Francisco, Calif. 

30,000 

Hartford, Conn. 

16,000 

Savannah, Ga. 

5,000 

Hoboken, N. J. 

5,000 

Scranton, Pa. 

7>500 

Houston, Texas .... 

5,000 

Seattle, Wash. 

5,000 

Indianapolis, Ind. ... 

10,000 

Springfield, Mass. ... 

6,000 

Jersey City, N. J. ... 

12,500 

Syracuse, N. Y. 

12,000 

Kansas City, Mo. ... 

12,000 

Toledo, Ohio. 

7,500 

Los Angeles, Calif. .. 

18,000 

Trenton, N. J. 

7,000 

Louisville, Ky. 

9,000 

Waco, Texas . 

5,000 

Lowell, Mass. 

6,000 

Washington, D. C. .. 

10,000 

Lynn, Mass. 

7,500 

Waterbury, Conn. .. 

6,000 

Malden, Mass. 

9,000 

Worcester, Mass. .. 

10,000 

Memphis, Tenn. 

10,000 

Yonkers, N. Y. 

5,000 

Milwaukee, Wis. ... 

20,000 

Youngstown, N. Y. . 

5,000 


262 









































INDEX 


Aaron, Jonas, 65. 

Abarbanel, Lina, 158. 

Aborn, Milton, 190. 

Aborn, Sargent, 190. 

Abraham, Jedediah ben, 196. 
Abrams, Dr. Albert, 198. 

Adams, Brooks, 71. 

Adams, Franklin P. (F. P. A.), 
151 . 173 , 174 . 

Adams, Herbert B., 33. 

Adams, James Truslow, 50. 

Adams, Samuel, 56, 58. 

Addison, 69. 

Adler, Celia 158. 

Adler, Dr. Cyrus, 236. 

Adler, Francine (Larrimore), 158. 
Adler, Liebman, 87. 

Adler, Samuel, 234. 

Adolphus, King Gustavus, II. 
Altman, 121. 

Ambrosoes, Moses, 62. 

Ami, Jacob Ben, 152, 158. 
Andreyev, 152. 

Anspacher, Louis Kaufman, 157. 
Anthony, Joseph (Rosenblatt), 166. 
Antin, Mary, 166. 

Antokolsky, 192. 

Arnold, Benedict, 77. 

Asch, Sholom, 152, 175, 176, 231. 
Auer, Leopold, 183. 

Auslander, Joseph, 174. 

Bacharach, Isaac, 215. 

Bacon, 243. 

Baker, 109. 

Balieff, 148. 

Ballin, Hugo, 194. 

Barton, Clara, 224. 

BaruCh, Bernard, 106, 107, 219. 


Baruch, Dr. Simon, 220. 

Bates, Blanche, 146. 

Baylies, Francis, 49. 

Baylinson, A. S., 194. 

Beard, Charles A. and Mary R., 9, 
12, 13. 

Beaulieu, Anatole Leroy, 248. 
Becker, Maurice, 195. 

Beerbohm, Max, 33. 

Belasco, David, 146, 148, 157, 158. 
Bellingham, Governor, 51. 
Bellomont, Lord, 62, 63. 

Benchley, Robert, 151. 

Bendix, Max, 184. 

Benet, 169. 

Benjamin, Judah P., 90, 91, 92. 
Berensohn, Bernhard, 195. 
Berkovici, Konrad, 168, 178. 
Berlin, Irving, 191. 

Berliner, Emil Henry, 205. 

Bernal, Maestro, 44. 

Bernard, Barney, 158. 

Bernhardt, Rachel, 158. 
Bernhardt, Sarah, 158. 

Bernstein, Herman, 166, 191, 229. 
Berolzheimer, Philip, 187. 

Block, Bertram, 151. 

Block, Ernest, 190. 

Bloomfield, Meyer, 217. 
Bloomgarden, Solomon (Yehoash), 
1 75 : 

Bloomingdale, 121. 

Blum, Solomon, 201. 

Blumenberg, Leopold, 99. 

Boaz, Prof., 203. 

Bodenheim, Maxwell, 163, 172, 
178. 

Bodzansky, Arthur, 186. 
Boerhaave, 197. 


265 


266 


INDEX 


Boni, Albert, 177. 

Boni, Charles, 177,178. 

Booth, Edwin, 146. 

Bradford, 49, 51. 

Brady, Alter, 172. 

Brandes, George, 167. 

Brandeis, Justice Louis D., 209, 
2ii, 213. 

Brenner, Victor D., 194. 

Brentano, 149, 180. 

Breslau, Sophie, 190. 

Brice, Fannie, 158. 

Brill, Dr. Abraham A., 198, 203. 
Broad, Bertha, 158. 

Brodsky, Horace, 194. 

Bromwell, 17. 

Broun, Hey wood, 151. 

Brown, Nicholas L., 177, 179. 
Brudno, Ezra, 166. 

Butensky, Jules Leon, 194. 

Caballeria, Alphonso, 36. 

Cabrero, Juan de, 36, 38. 

Cahan, Abraham, 166, 231. 

Calli, Alonzo de, 43. 

Campbell, Lieut. Col. Douglas, 115. 
Cantor, Eddie, 158. 

Carlyle, 250. 

Carter, Leslie, 146. 

Carvahlo, Leon, 229. 

Celler, Emanuel, 215. 

Chaliapin, Feodor, 192. 

Charles III, of Spain, 79. 
Chauncey, 51. 

Christ, 49. 

Clarkson, Grosvenor B., 106, 107. 
Cleveland, 26. 

Cobb, Irvin S., 10. 

Cohen, Alfred J. (Alan Dale), 
154 . 155 - 
Cohen Bros., 95. 

Cohen, Dr. Louis, 207. 

Cohen, Morris R., 41. 

Cohen, Octavus Roy, 97, 166. 
Cohen, Rose Gollup, 165, 168. 


Columbus, Christopher, 33, 34, 35, 
36, 38, 39 . 40, 4 L 42, 43 . 44 . 
46. 

Collier, Constance, 158. 

Commons, John R., 15. 

Connelly, Marc, 151. 

Coralnik, Dr. Abram, 230. 

Cournos, John, 164, 178. 

Crower, Merle, 136. 

Czar, 183, 205. 

Dale, Alan, (Alfred J. Cohen), 
154 . 155 - 

Daly, Charles Patrick, 61. 
Damrosch, Walter, 186. 

Darwin, 252. 

Davenport, John, 52. 

David, 53, 57. 

Davidson, Dore, 162. 

Davidson, Gustav, 174. 

Davidson, Jo, 193. 

Davis, Jefferson, 91. 

De Casseres, Benjamin, 229. 

Dell, Floyd, 177. 

Dembitz, Lewis Naphtali, 89. 

De Lyon, Abraham, 66. 

Deutsch, Babette, 173. 

Dickstein, Samuel, 215. 

Dimow, Ossip, 157, 175. 

Dingley, 124. 

Disraeli, 92, 238. 

Dittenhoefer, A. J., 89. 

Dix, Henry A., 215. 

Drachsler, Julius, 203, 261. 

Du Bois, W. S. Burghardt, 13. 
Duncan, Isadora, 192. 

Duro, Cesareo, Fernandez, 37. 
Duveen, 195. 

Eaton, Theophilus, 52. 

Edison, 28. 

Edwards, Maj. Gen. Clarence, 115. 
Eggleston, Edward, 70. 

Ehrich, Louis W., 195. 

Einhorn, Rabbi David, 87, 234. 


INDEX 


267 


Einstein, Lewis, 227. 

Einstein, Max, 100. 

Emerson, 169. 

En-Reques, Joshua Mordecai, 68. 
Epstein, Alter, 175. 

Epstein, Jacob, 193, 194. 

Evans, Dr. Evan, 200. 

Ezekiel, Sir Moses, 192. 

Fairchild, Henry Pratt, 9. 

Farrar, Geraldine, 161. 

Feinstein, Martin, 174. 

Feist, Leo, 191. 

Feld, Rose C., 217. 

Felsenthal, Rabbi Bernhard, 87, 
234 - 

Ferber, Edna, 164. 

Ferdinand, 34, 35, 38, 40. 

Fields, Louis, 158. 

Fink, Henry T., 182, 184. 
Fishberg, Dr., 138, 198. 

Fishman, Joseph, 213. 

Fleisher, Alexander, 217. 

Flexner, Dr. Simon, 197, 199. 
Fokine, 148. 

Forrest, Edwin, 146. 

Fox, William, 162. 

F. P. A., (See Adams, Franklin 
P.). 

France, Anatole, 193. 

Frank, Waldo, 163, 164, 168, 178, 
184. 

Frankel, Kee L., 217. 

Frankfurter, Prof. Felix, 109, no, 
211. 

Franklin, 77. 

Franklin, Dr., 58. 

Franklin, Fabian,229. 

Franklin, Rabbi Jacob, 95. 

Franks, David, 73, 76. 

Franks, Isaac, 76. 

Freed, Joseph R., 206. 

Freedman, David, 168. 

Freud, Dr. Sigmund, 178, 198. 
Friedenwald, Dr. Harry, 198. 


Friedlander, Israel, 236. 

Friedman, Elisha, 204. 

Friedman, Ignatz, 186. 

Friedman, Max, 100. 

Frohman, Charles, 146, 148. 
Frohman, Daniel, 148. 

Fromer, Dr. 246. 

Funk, Dr. Casimir, 197. 

Funk, Dr. Isaac, 236. 

Galileo, 197. 

Garden, Mary, 161. 

Garven, L. J., 251. 

Geary, 25. 

George, King, 75. 

Gerson, Levi, ben, 43. 

Gest, Morris, 146, 147, 148, 258. 
Gideon, 53. 

Gimbel, 121. 

Ginsburg, Louis, 235. 

Gladstone, 92. 

Glass, Montague, 151, 157. 

Gluck, Alma, 184, 190. 

Godowsky, Leopold, 186. 

Gold, Michael, 174. 

Goldberg, Dr. Isaac, 166,167,180. 
Goldberg, “Rube”, 195. 

Goldberger, Dr. Joseph, 199, 200. 
Goldenweiser, Prof., 203. 
Goldfaden, Abraham, 176. 
Goldfogle, Henry M., 215. 
Goldman, Edwin Franko, 187. 
Goldmark, Rubin, 190. 
Goldenreyer, 146. 

Goldsmith Bros., 95. 

Goldwyn, Samuel (Goldfish), 161. 
Gomberg, Prof. Moses, 208. 
Gompers, Samuel, 106, 107, 108, 
189. 

Gompertz, Sergt. Sydney G., 117. 
Goodman, Jules Eckert, 157. 
Gordin, Jacob, 176. 

Gordon, Vera, 162. 

Gorin, B., 175. 

Gorky, 152. 


268 


INDEX 


Gratz, Bernard, 73. 

Gratz, Michael, 73. 

Grant, President, 226. 

Green, Harry, 158. 

Guggenheim, Mrs. Daniel, 122, 
187. 

Guiterman, Arthur, 171. 

Haam, Achod, 50. 

Haldeman-Julius, E., 178. 
Halperin, Nan, 158. 

Hammerstein, Oscar, 147, 188. 
Hamilton, Alexander, 218. 
Hamsun, Knut, 180. 

Hapgood, Norman, 212. 

Harkavy, Alexander, 175. 
Harrigan, Capt., 116. 

Harris, Sam, 146. 

Hart, Abraham, 100. 

Hart, Meyer, 65. 

Hart, Michael, 65. 

Hart, Rachel, 65. 

Harte, Bernard, 81. 

Harte, Bret, 81. 

Hauptmann, 152, 154, 180. 

Hay, 96. 

Hecht, Ben, 157, 163, 164, 168, 
178. 

Heifetz, Jascha, 184. 

Heilprin, Michael, 88. 

Heine, 46. 

Helbrum, Theresa, 150. 

Heilman, George, 195. 
Hergesheimer, Joseph, 177. 
Hershfield, Harry, 195. 
Heydenfeldt, Judge Samuel, 87. 
Hillman, Sydney, 125. 

Hilquit, Morris, 215. 

Hirsch, Emil G., 234. 

Hirsch, Maier, 89. 

Hirscfr, Samuel, 234. 

Hirsch, Solomon, 227. 

Hirschbein, Perez, 152, 176. 
Hochhauser, Edward, 215. 
Hochstein, David, 184. 


Hoffenstein, Samuel, 174. 
Hoffman, Aaron, 157. 

Hoffman, Joseph, 186. 

Hollander, Jacob, 201. 

Hoover, 220. 

Hopkins, Arthur, 152. 

Horowitz, Louis J., 129. 

Houdini, 158. 

Hourwich, Prof. I. A., 202, 231. 
Howard, Rev. Simon, 56. 

Howard, Prof., 214. 

Howe, General, 98. 

Huebsch, B. W., 177, 179, 180. 
Hughes, Governor, 222. 

Hurok, Solomon, 191, 192. 

Hurst, Fanny, 165. 

Hurwitz, Dr. Henry, 230. 

Ibsen, 152. 

Isaacson, Charles D., 188. 

Isabella, Queen, 33, 34, 35, 37, 
40. 43 - 

Isaake, Rebecca, 67. 

Israel, David, 62. 

Israel, Manasseh, ben, 44, 61. 
Israels, 192. 

Jackson, “Stonewall”, 102. 

Jacobs, Dr. Abraham, 197. 

Jacobs, Benjamin, 80. 

Jacobs, Joseph, 42, 43, 73. 

Jacoby, Prof. Harold, 203. 

Jacobson, Maurice, 204. 

Jaffa, M. E., 133. 

Jastrow, Prof. Joseph, 203. 

Jay, 77- 

Jefferson, 3, 58, 78, 193 - 
Jehuda-Sebeth, 197. 

Joachimsen, Philip J., 99. 

Johnson, 99. 

Jolson, Al., 158. 

Jonas, Abraham, 95, 96. 

Jonas, Benjamin F., 96. 

Jonas, Charles H., 96. 


INDEX 


269 


Josephus, 56. 

Joshua, 53, 89. 

Judah, 56. 

Judah, Samuel B. H., 156. 

Juster, Sergeant Maurice, 103. 

\ 

Kahn, Julius, 215. 

Kahn, Otto, 150, 189, 258. 
Kaiser, Ephram, 194. 

Kalb, Baron de, 74. 

Kalisch, Bertha, 158. 

Kallen, Horace Meyer, 203, 211. 
Kaplan, Mordecai M., 236. 
Kaufman, Benjamin, 117. 
Kaufman, George S., 151. 
Kaufman, Sigmund, 89, 230. 
Kautsky, Karl, 231. 

Kayserling, Prof. Moses, 34. 

Kean, Charles, 146. 

Kepler, 197. 

Kern, Jerome D., 191. 
Kingborough, Lord, 44. 

Kiper, Florence, 173. 

Kirjasoff, Max D., 227. 

Klein, Charles, 157. 

Knefler, Frederick, 98. 

Knopf, Alfred A., 177. 

Kobrin, I., 176. 

Kobrin, Leon, 175. 

Kohn, Abraham, 89, 198. 

Kohler, Kaufman, 234. 

Korn, Dr. Arthur, 207. 

Kornfeld, Rabbi Joseph Louis, 227. 
Korngold, Erich, 190. 

Krantz, Philip, 175. 

Krauskopf, Rabbi Joseph, 131. 
Kreisler, Fritz, 184. 

Kuhn, 122, 151. 

Laemmle, Carl, 162. 

Lait, Jack, 229. 

Landis, Judge Kenesaw M., 218. 
Langdon, Rev. Samuel, 55. 
Langner, Lawrence, 149, I 5 °* 
Larrimore, Francine (Adler), 158. 


Las Casas, 36, 37, 38. 

Lasker, Albert, 218. 

Lasky, Jesse, 161, 

Lawrence, D., 229. 

Lawrence, D. H., 179. 

Lawrence, Joseph, 8. 

Lavater, 197. 

Lazare, 56. 

Lazarus, Emma, 169. 

Leader, 8. 

Leavitt, Ezekiel, 174. 

Leavitt, Dr. Julian W., 11, 118. 
Lecky, 46, 54. 

Lee, 78, 102. 

Legardo, Elias, 67. 

Lehman, Irving, 209. 

Leisler, 63. 

Leon, Edwin de, 225. 

Leon, Jacob de, 74. 

Leon, General David de, 97. 
Leopold, Israel (Ed Wynn), 158. 
Lesser, Sol, 162. 

Levins, Sonia, 230. 

Levin, Prof., 201. 

Levin, Isaac H., 208. 

Levine, Dr. Louis, 199. 

Levy, Judge Aaron J., 209. 

Levy, Benjamin, 73, 80. 

Levy, Bert, 195. 

Levy, Bros., 95. 

Levy, Hayman Jr., 73. 

Levy, Herman, 80. 

Levy, Jessie Miss, 209. 

Levy, Sampson, 73. 

Levy, William Auerbach, 194. 
Levy, Captain Uriah P., 101. 
Lewisohn, Adolph, 186, 213. 
Lewisohn, Ludwig, 153, 154, 178. 
Lhevinne, Joseph, 186. 

Libin, Z., 176. 

Libman, Dr. Emanuel, 200. 
Lieberman, Elias, 173. 

Lilienthal, Max, 234. 

Lincoln, 28, 89, 96, 99, 100, 102. 
Lindo, Moses, 67. 


270 


INDEX 


LIpman, C. B., 133. 

Lipman, Clara, 158. 

Lipman, Jacob G. Prof., 133. 
Lippman, Walter, 211, 

Liszt, 193. 

Liveright, Horace, 177, 178. 
Lodge, Henry Cabot, 12. 

Loeb, Jacques, 199. 

Loeb, Sophie Irene, 230. 

Loeb, 121, 122. 

Loew, Marcus, 160, 162. 

London, Meyer, 215. 

Longfellow, 176. 

Longstreet, General, 97. 

Longuet, Jean, 231. 

Lopez, Aaron, 64. 

Lossing, 81. 

Lourie, Judge David A., 209. 
Lowell, Amy, 169. 

Lowell, James Russell, 33. 
Lowenstein, Fritz, 206. 

Lowenthal, Marvin, 230. 

Lubin, David, 134, 135, 216. 
Lushington, Captain, 75. 

Luzerne, Chavalier de la, 80. 

Maclay, Edgar Stanton, 81. 
Madison, 78, 225, 255. 

Mack, Judge Julian, 209. 

Makir, Jacob ben, 43. 

Manborgne, Major, 207. 

Mann, Louis, 158. 

Marco, 44. 

Marinoff, Fania, 58. 

Marix, Adolf, 104, 105. 
Marovitch, Alfred, 186. 

Marshall, Louis, 209, 222, 223, 
228. 

Martin, Everett Dean, 247. 

Marx, Karl, 241. 

Maslow, Ray, 201. 

Mayer, General W., 100. 

Mayers, Hy., 195. 

Mayers, Colonel, Mordecai, 80. 
McChesney, Emma, 164. 


McDonald, Ramsay, 231. 
McGowan, Kenneth, 151. 
McKenna, Kennett, (Leo Miel- 
ziner, Jr.), 158. 

McKinley, 104, 124. 

McSweeney, Edward F., (Intro¬ 
duction to Series), 1. 

Meltzer, Samuel Dr., 198. 
Mencken, H. L., 164, 177, 247. 
Mendel, Prof. Lafayette B., 199. 
Mengelburg, Wille, 185. 

Mercer, 78. 

Mercier, 92. 

Meyer, Adolphus, 97. 

Meyer, Eugene Jr., no. 

Meyers, Carmel, 162. 

Michelson, Prof. Albert, 202, 229. 
Michelson, Charles, 229. 

Mielziner, Leo, 194. 

Mierowitz, William, 194. 

Milton, 190. 

Minis, Isaac, 66. 

Mindlin, 146. 

Mitmitsky, 184. 

Moeller, Philip, 150. 

Moise, Joseph, 67. 

Moisseiff, Leon M., 208. 

Mordecai, I. Randolph, 98. 
Mordecai, Moses, 73. 

Mordell, Albert, 166. 

Morgan, 121. 

Morgenthau, Henry, 227. 

Monroe, 78, 155. 

Morais, Sabato, 87. 

Morris, 122. 

Morris, George P., 155. 

Morris, Ira Nelson, 227. 

Morris, Robert, 77, 78, 80. 

Moses, 48, 52, 53, 56, 58, 251. 
Moses, Isaac, 80. 

Moses, Montrose, 154. 

Moses, Col. Raphael J., 97. 

Motta, Jacob, de la, 74. 

Moultrie, General, 75. 

Myles, Jerome, 194. 


INDEX 


271 


Nathan, George Jean, 152, 153, 
154 - 

Nathan, Robert, 166. 

Naumburg, Elkan, 187. 

Nazimova, Alla, 158. 

Negri, Pola (Pauline Schwartz), 
162. 

Nehemiah, Seignor Moses, 67, 68. 
Nethersole, Olga, 158. 

Newton, 197. 

Nicoll, Daniel, 229. 

Neichoff, 71. 

Nicolay, 96. 

Niger, S., 231. 

Noah, Major Manuel Mordecai, 
80, 155, 156, 225. 

Nones, Major Benjamin, 74. 
Nunez, Dr., 66. 

Nyberg, Sydney, 166. 

O’Brien, Edward J., 168. 

Ochs, Adolph S., 228. 

Oglethorpe, General, 65, 66. 
Opatoshu, I., 175. 

Oppenheim, 169. 

Oppenheim, Jas., 168, 170. 
Oppenheimer, Ben, 97. 

Ordroneaux, Capt. John, 81, 82, 
256. 

Ornstein, Leo, 184, 185. 

Paderewski, Ignace, 194. 

Paine, Robert Treat, 56. 

Paine, Thomas, 57. 

Pam, Judge Hugo, 209. 

Pankin, Jacob, 215. 

Panzini, 179. 

Papini, Giovanni, 180. 

Parker, Dorothy, 151. 

Partridge, 51. 

Pavlowa, 192. 

Peixotto, Benjamin F., 225. 

Penn, 7. 

Perlman, Nathan, 215. 

Perlmutter, 157. 


Peters, Madison C., 102. 

Pharoah, 58. 

Phillips, Jonas B., 156. 

Pinner, Moritz, 89. 

Pinski, 152, 157, 175, 176, 180. 
Pinto, Abraham, 74. 

Pinto, Solomon, 74. 

Pinto, William, 75. 

Plotz, Dr. Harry, 197. 

Poldan, 44. 

Potash, 157. 

Proskauer, Judge Joseph, 209. 
Pulitzer, Joseph, 229. 

Rabinoff, Max, de la, 189, 190. 
Ragorodsky, Abraham, 208. 

Raisa, Rosa, 190. 

Raisin, Dr., 207. 

Raison, Milton, 174. 

Raphael, Rabbi Morris J., 87, 88. 
Reed, Florence, 158. 
Reinhardt-Goldman Max, 258. 
Renton, Don Francisco, 79. 

Reyner, 51. 

Rice, Elmer, 157. 

Riega, Don Celso Garcia, 41, 42. 
Riesenfeld, Hugo, 188. 

Rimini, Giacomo, 190. 

Ripkind, Morris, 151, 174. 
Rodriguez-Rivera, Jacob, 64. 
Rolland, Romain, 181. 

Roosevelt, Colonel, 103, 227. 
Rosen, Max, 184. 

Rosenau, Prof. Milton, 200. 
Rosenbach, 195. 

Rosenblatt, Benjamin, 168. 
Rosenblatt, (Joseph Anthony), 166. 
Rosenfeld, Morris, 175, 176. 
Rosenfeld, Paul, 185. 

Rosenoff, Prof., 208. 

Rosenwald, Julius, 106, 108, 223, 
228. 

Rosewater, Victor, 229. 

Roth, Samuel, 173. 

Rothapfel, S. L., 188. 


272 


INDEX 


Rothchild, 241. 

Rowe, Leo S., 227. 

Rubinow, Dr. I M., 204. 

Rush, Dr., 57. 

Ryan, Father, 215. 

Sachs, T. B., 198. 

St. John, Irvine, 145, 148. 

St. Paul, 54. 

Salomon, Haym, 77, 78, 79, 80, 
81, 255. 

Samuel, 53, 57, 58. 

Samuel, Maurice, 166. 

Santangel, Luis de, 34, 36, 37, 38, 
39 , 40 . 

Santangel, Martin de, 35. 
Santangel, Mosen Luis de, 35. 
Sanchez, Gabriel, 35, 36, 38, 40, 
43 . 

Sanchez, Roderigo, 43. 

Sanders, Leon, 215. 

Sapiro, Aaron, 135, 136, 177. 
Sargent, 190. 

Sarnoff, David, 205. 

Saul, 56. 

Sawelson, Jacob L., 118. 

Sawelson, William, 118. 

Schechter, Rabbi Solomon, 235. 
Schenck, Joseph, 162. 

Schiff, Jacob, Henry and Mor¬ 
timer, 121, 223, 224. 
Schildkraut, Joseph, 158, 162. 
Schildkraut, Rudolph, 158. 
Schindler, Kurt, 186. 

Schnittkind, Dr. Henry T., 142, 
177, 180. 

Schulberg, William, 162. 
Schuman-Heink, 192. 

Schwartz, Pauline (Pola Negri), 
162. 

Schwartzchild, 122. 

Seddon, 93. 

Segal, Vivienne, 158. 

Seidel, Yoscha, 184. 

Seldes, Gilbert, 230. 


Seligman, Edwin R. A., 122, 201, 
228. 

Selikowitch, George, 232. 

Selleck, 8. 

Seltzner, Thomas, 177, 179. 
Selwyn, 146. 

Seybert, Adam, 16. 

Seymour, Horatio, 81. 

Shakespeare, 152. 

Shapiro, 191. 

Shapiro, Jacob Salwyn, 203. 
Sharfman, Prof. Leo, 204. 

Sharpe, Rev. John, 63. 

Shaw, 152. 

Sheffler, Henry M., 201. 

Sheftal, Mordecai, 75. 

Shipman, Louis, 157. 

Shomer, Abraham, 157. 

Shore, Viola Brothers, 166. 

Shubert, 146. 

Shylock, 158. 

Sidis, Boris, 203. 

Siegel, Isaac, 215. 

Simon, Robert, 166. 

Simonson, Lee, 150. 

Singer, Dr. Isidor, 236. 

Snitkin, L. A., 209. 

Snowden, Philip, 231. 

Sokoloflf, Nicolai, 186. 

Solomon, Adolphus S., 224. 
Solomon, Edward D., (or Salo¬ 
mon), 98. 

Sombart, 60. 

Spencer, Rev. T. A., 9. 

Spewack, Samuel, 229. 

Speyers, 122. 

Spiegel, Marcus M., 100. 

Spingarn, Joel, 166, 228. 

Starr, Frances, 146. 

Starratt, Theodore, 130. 

Steinmetz, Charles Proteus, 204. 
Stein, Gertrude, 164. 

Stern, 121. 

Steuben, 78. 

Steuer, Max, 309. 


INDEX 


273 


Stieglitz, Alfred, 195. 

Stieglitz, Julius Oscar, 208. 

Stock, Ferdinand, 186. 

Stokes, Rose Pastor, 175. 
Stokowski, Leopold, 186. 

Stransky, Joseph, 186. 

Straus, Isidore, 97. 

Straus, Manny, 110. 

Straus, Nathan, 221, 222. 

Straus, Oscar, 226. 

Strindberg, 179. 

Strinsky, Simeon, 229. 

Stuart, Gilbert, 76. 

Stuyvesant, 60, 62. 

Suderman, 180. 

Sulzberger, 122. 

Swartz, Maurice, 152. 

Taft, William Howard, 105. 
Tannenbaum, Abner, 174. 
Tannenbaum, Frank, 213. 

Tappan, Dr. David, 58. 
Taubenhaus, Jacob, 133. 

Taussig, Edward David, 104, 201. 
Tesla, Nicklas, 206. 

Thebaud, A. J., 8. 

Thorowgood, 44. 

Tilzer, Alfred Von, 191. 
Tobenkin, Elias, 166. 

Tokutomi, Kenjiro, 180. 

Torres, Luis de, 43, 44, 45. 

Touro, Judah, 82, 85, 223. 

Ullman, Samuel, 98. 

Ulrich, Leonore, 147. 

Untermeyer, Jean Starr, 170. 
Untermeyer, Louis, 170, 211. 
Untermeyer, Samuel, 169, 209, 

218. 

Van Buren, Martin, 81. 

Vechten, Carl Van, 177. 

Vernon, Captain John, 8. 

Virga, Solomon, 197. 

Vizitelly, Frank H., 236. 


Vizino, Joseph, 43. 

Volk, Lester, 215. 

Wald, Lillian, 220, 221. 
Walkowitz, Abraham, 194. 
Warburg, 121, 223. 

Warburg, Paul, 217, 218. 
Warfield, 146, 158. 

Warwick, Robert, 158. 
Washington, George, 2, 28, 76. 
Wasservogel, Justice, 209. 

Weiman, Rita, 165. 

Weinberg, Louis, 195. 

Weiner, Leo, 203. 

Weinstock, Lubin (Co.), 216. 
Wenger, John, 194. 

Wetheim, Maurice, 150. 

Westley, Helen, 150. 

Weyl, Walter E., 211. 

Wheaton, Henry, 79. 

Whitlesey, Colonel, 116. 

Wiernick, Peter, 231. 

Williams, Oscar, 174. 

Williams, Roger, 64. 

Wilson, James, 79. 

Wilson, President, 26, 221. 
Winslow, Thyra Samter, 165. 
Wise, Isaac M., 223. 

Wise, Stephen S., 235. 

Wohlheim, Louis, 158, 162. 

Wolf, Simon, 93, 94, 95, 

Wolfe, S. Herbert, no. 

Wolman, Leo, 211. 

Wood, 146. 

Wynn, Ed., (Israel Leopold), 158. 
Yahweh, 55, 56. 

Yehoash (Solomon Bloomgarden), 
175 . 

Yeomans, Robert, 8. 

Yezierska, Anzia, 165, 178. 

Young, Michael, Harry de, 230. 
Young, 17, 18. 

Yulee, David (born Levy), 87. 


274 


INDEX 


Zacuto, Abraham, 42, 43. 
Zadok, 56. 

Zeitlin, Alexandre, 194. 
Zevin, Israel, 175. 


Zhitlovsky, Dr. Chayim, 231 
Zimbalist, Efrem, 184, 191. 
Zon, 204. 

Zukor, Adolph, 160, 161. 






























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